


Building Anew

by whiteraven1606



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Barebacking, Character Development, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, Endearments, Food, Food Issues, Gift Giving, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Massage, Pajamas & Sleepwear, Past Abuse, Post-Movie(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Pre-Slash, Recovery, Sex Toys, Shower Sex, Slash, Teambuilding, Threesome - M/M/M, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-02
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2017-11-13 09:02:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 31,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve builds a life of more than just brooding and destroying punching bags after the near invasion with help from his team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tealightwhimsy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealightwhimsy/gifts).



Steve stood and stared at the rubble of his apartment building. "I thought I saw the Hulk get knocked into it."

Clint clapped Steve on the shoulder that wasn't cut. "Cheer up, Cap. It could be lots worse. You could have a huge smelly whale sized alien laying dead on top of it."

With a sigh, Steve turned to head back towards Stark Tower. "Not helping."

Clint nodded. "Yeah, sorry."

They stopped frequently to extract someone from the rubble or check on survivors. Steve wasn't surprised that the team let him fall asleep in his food while they were eating afterwards. 

He kept his mouth closed when Stark insulted everyone's homes as he was offering for them to sleep in the Tower. Steve could see more of Howard in his boy now. Enough to know what Stark was meaning under the awful things coming out of the man's mouth. Steve frowned at Clint grinning behind Stark's shoulder.

Bruce nudged Stark with his own shoulder. "Enough, Tony. Everyone is tired."

Stark nodded and nearly fell down in the elevator when his legs tried to give out. Steve and Clint almost collided trying to catch Stark. Steve eased Stark onto Banner's shoulder and blinked when Clint just draped himself along Steve's side.

****

Steve was asleep when someone started yelling. He pushed himself upright enough to watch Clint, red faced and crying, waving his arms at Agent Romanoff. Steve rubbed his eye and frowned as the other two suddenly wrapped themselves up in a hug.

Just as fast as it started, Romanoff came away from the hug in a move that left Clint stumbling into Steve's bedding. Steve caught Clint as he landed.

Clint sniffed and ducked his head. "Sorry, Cap."

"Its fine." Steve rubbed at the back of Clint's neck. "Are you alright?"

Clint shook his head. "No."

Steve nodded. He laid back down, pulling Clint along with him. Steve held Clint tight as he quietly cried. Steve pretended to be asleep as Stark appeared with a blanket and covered them both with it.

****

Steve wasn't sure why he was standing outside the helicarrier's morgue doors thinking about bloody trading cards. He slipped in and stopped at the sight of Clint speaking quietly to a closed drawer. Steve moved closer and listened as Clint apologized for Loki and what Loki had caused him to do. How Clint had gotten the person killed even though he hadn't wanted any of it.

Clint moved to the next drawer and started again. Steve cleared his throat and winced when it made Clint startle badly.

"Sorry." Steve shifted on his feet and started to turn towards the door. "I shouldn't have interrupted."

"Stay." Clint pulled Steve to a different drawer, labeled P. J. Coulson. "He would have kicked my ass for coming down here by myself. Least we can do is say goodbye."

Steve's nose twitched and he looked at Clint carefully. "He was your friend, right?"

Clint fingered the drawer handle. "He and Nat are my family. We've done everything together at some point. Bleed, ate, slept, you name it we've..." Clint sighed and pulled away from the wall of drawers. "He was worrying you were going to let the modern world just crush you."

Steve blinked. "Agent Coulson told me about his trading cards before he died."

Clint nodded. "He loved those cards. He'd always put them in his locker before an operation so they couldn't get damaged."

"What?"

Clint looked at him oddly. "What, what?"

"He wouldn't have had them on him?" Steve moved closer to the drawer. Nowadays the seals were much better and he couldn't smell death from the drawer like he had in the war when they'd had body bags.

"No, of course not." Clint moved to the side as Steve stopped in front of the drawer. "Why?"

Steve frowned and pulled on the drawer handle. "Fury showed us Coulson's bloody cards after he died. That's what got Stark and I to talking about Loki's plans."

They stared at the empty metal slab that extended from the drawer when Steve pulled the little door open.

"Son of a bitch." Clint turned and was headed for the door before Steve could even get the drawer closed back up.

****

Steve sat beside Coulson's sleeping form as out in the hallway people were yelling. Neither Clint or Natasha had taken well to not being told Coulson wasn't as dead as he should have been. Steve wasn't sure who told Stark, but the man could certainly care when he wanted to.

Across Coulson from Steve, Bruce sat quietly reading Coulson's chart.

"What do you think, Dr. Banner?"

Bruce glanced up. "I think you can call me Bruce."

Steve's head snapped towards the door as someone punched a wall in the hallway. "Sure, okay."

"Them yelling isn't going to cause me to lose control."

"No, I didn't think it would, Bruce." Steve looked down at Coulson. "Will he wake up?"

"I think so." Bruce sat the chart down on the bedside table. "You okay, Steve?"

With a shrug, Steve leaned back in his chair. "Sure. I can't understand half of what anyone says. Everyone in news is more visible with their viciousness." He gestured to Coulson. "I'm watching over the person who seems to have cared most about getting me out of the ice." He rubbed his thumb across the edge of his shield, propped beside his chair. "Can you tell me what people mean when they say they have free wireless?"

"Such as a restaurant?"

Steve nodded.

"It is a way to connect to the Internet without using a wire called an ethernet cable." Bruce gestured to the room around them.

"Oh. Okay." Steve didn't ask him what the Internet was. He'd look it up with the phone Stark had thrown at him earlier. "Why isn't a phone just a phone anymore?"

Bruce smiled softly. "Did anyone tell you that most cell phones take pictures?"

****

Phil prided himself on knowing when the situation was screwed. So he worried when he woke up and the smells were wrong. He remembered the people surrounding his bed hating each other the last time he'd been in the same room with them both.

Phil looked around carefully at Tony snoring and Captain Rogers muttering in his sleep. He pushed himself up in his bed and tried not to make noise as everything protested. 

Dr. Banner appeared at his shoulder and patted him on the bicep. "You're in Stark Tower. You were stabbed by Loki and you've been out for a few days."

Well, yes, stabbed, he remembered that part. "Did...we win?" Phil closed his eyes as trying to talk while breathing made him suddenly so damn tired.

Captain Rogers woke with a snort as Dr. Banner moved away a little. 

"Yes, we won." 

Phil listened to Dr. Banner fill in Captain Rogers before saying he was going to get coffee for everyone. Phil opened his eyes to find Captain Rogers watching him.

"You look better."

Phil let his expression soften towards amused. "Is that...good?"

"Yes." He took Phil's hand in his. "Fury saved the world by telling Stark and I that you'd been killed by Loki." 

Phil watched Captain Rogers frown and it occurred to him. "My cards?"

Tony jerked awake and fell of his chair. Phil had to force himself not to laugh as the man cussed and Captain Rogers blushed. Tony smiled wide when he saw Phil awake.

"You're alive!"

"Stark!"

Tony frowned at Captain Rogers. "What? He is. Which is much better than yesterday before you and Barton found his morgue drawer empty." Tony looked down at him. "By the way, in case no one has said, we saved the world, got Barton back, sent Loki home in chains, and kept a nuke from being dropped on the city." He smiled. "All in all, a good day's work."

Phil blinked. "Nuke?"

Tony shrugged as he wrinkled his nose. "We were being invaded by aliens. They were coming through a portal over my Tower, so, you know, save the planet by nuking the portal."

"Oh." Phil frowned as he thought about that. "Would that...have worked?" He forced his eyes to stay open as Captain Rogers looked at Tony with his eyebrows raised.

Tony scratched at his beard. "Uhm. Probably not. The force field protecting the device powering the portal was surprising resilient."

Phil fell asleep content in the knowledge that Nat hadn't had to kill Clint and he hadn't managed to kill her. Saving the world by proxy was just the icing on the cake.

****

Clint watched Steve frown at the fridge's built in touch screen. "Having trouble, Cap?"

Steve started to poke at the screen and stopped with his finger hovering without touching. "No." He turned towards Clint. "Yes. What is this thing for?"

Clint looked over the icons on the screen. "Looks like it can tell you the weather forecast, let you surf the Internet, or, uh, watching TV."

"Surf? Never mind." Steve waved his fingers at the screen. "Which is the weather forecast?"

Clint pointed at the proper icon. "This one." He touched it and the forecast popped up. "It lets you search for anyone's weather. Even other countries."

"Swell." Steve watched as Clint pulled up the forecast for Malibu. "I feel like I need a manual."

"Did Stark give you a phone?" He held up a phone like the one Tony had given Steve.

"Yes." He sat down next to Clint and put his phone down on the table between them. "It isn't just a phone."

Clint smiled. "No, more like a person computer, camera, telegram office, and phone all in one."

"Computers ran with plugs, vacum tubes, and took up whole rooms last time I saw them." Steve rubbed his ear. "That was a few months ago to my memory." Steve frowned down at the phone. "Tony said something about it getting the Internet. I still don't know what that is."

"Uh." Clint took the phone and made it light up. "Here, I'll show you."

****

From the doorway of the kitchen, Tony smiled as Steve let Clint teach him about modern technology. Tony decided he'd get his coffee from Bruce's kitchen and headed off. He checked on Coulson's vitals as he waited for the elevator.

He tried not to frown as Natasha got on the elevator with him. "Going to stab me in the neck again?"

She smirked at him. "Maybe." She flicked her fingers at his tablet. "How's Coulson?"

He hugged the tablet to his chest. "Fine, but you know that already."

"Yes." She leaned against the wall of the elevator. "Thanks."

"Uhhhh, okay." Tony frowned. "What are you thanking me for?"

She lead the way out of the elevator and watched Bruce look up at them. "Just thanks, Stark. You too, Doctor."

Bruce looked between her and Tony. He shrugged because he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Thanks." Bruce went back to what he was doing. 

Tony got himself a cup of coffee and gave Natasha a glare as she stole the cup from him as soon as he sat it down. "Hey."

She smiled as she took a sip. "Learn to protect your cup."

Tony rolled his eyes and got himself another cup. "Do you usually steal other people's coffee?"

Natasha pushed herself up on the table near Bruce, but out of his way. "Coulson's, yes. Never steal Barton's though." She grinned as both of them looked at her. "He gets serious about his coffee with honey and carmel in it."

"Ewww." Tony wrinkled his nose as he wondered over to Bruce's screen to see what the man was working on. "That's just gross."

She shrugged. "It was different. Coulson expects his to be replaced if you take it. Donuts are the worse."

Bruce looked over at her. "He eats donuts?"

"Those little sugar covered ones. Either chocolate or the powered sugar. He will not tolerate those going missing." She leaned back on her hands as she spoke. "Coulson convinced me Clint was serious about having me join SHEILD with those little donuts."

Tony wondered to himself for a few moments about how much of what she was saying was the truth. He mentally shrugged as she answered Bruce's questions about her early days with SHEILD.

****

Steve settled beside Phil's bed with the trading cards he had gotten through the Internet. It still astounded him that the Internet did so many things. He watched Phil sleep for a while before smiling to himself. After listening to Tony's secondhand stories for Natasha, Clint, and Phil learning to work together Steve found himself less bothered by Phil having watched over him after the ice. 

The computer program that Tony had made like a butler had shown Steve all the times Phil had helped or been assigned to protect Tony. Steve had been struck by how much of a difference there was between Phil when he was starstruck and when he was sure of himself.

It had taken him most of an afternoon with Clint's help to work out the Internet enough to find new trading cards for Phil. Steve had been startled by the asking prices, but once the computer butler had tattled on them to Tony price hadn't mattered.

In the week it had taken to have the various cards found and delivered Phil had improved enough to get some color back and stop falling asleep after only a few minutes of being awake.

Steve reached forward and touched Phil's shoulder. He sat back as Phil snorted awake and blinked at him.

"Oh." He pushed himself up a little. "Hi."

Steve smiled. "Hello." He held out the box with the cards in it. "Clint and Tony helped me find these for you."

Phil blinked and took the box. "What?" He opened the box and his eyes widened. "Oh." He reached in and pulled out the first one. "Wait. What did..." He looked from the card he was holding into the box. "You got new ones."

"Tony says the jackets are the best protection we can get for them." He took the bloody one from the top and picked up the new pristine mate that was the next down. "I got all of them from the helicarrier and I signed those." He took out the next pair. "I'll sign the new ones too, if you want."

Phil started spreading out the cards across his lap. "This is incredible." He held up one of the new cards. "How'd you get this one?" He eyed Steve. "Clint didn't just show up with this one, did he?"

Steve blushed as he realized Phil was thinking Clint had stolen it. "No." He shook his head. "No, no. The phone Tony gave me gets the Internet. And that gets everything. The computer butler told Tony that Clint was helping me find the cards on the Internet. Tony just bought them all and had them shipped here."

"Computer butler?" Phil cocked his head. "Oh, JARVIS. Okay." He smiled. "Thank you, Captain." He looked up at the ceiling. "Thanks, JARVIS."

"You are most welcome, Agent Coulson."

Steve forced himself not to jump as the butler's voice came through the speakers in the room. "Everyone treats it like it's human, but then they all insist that it isn't human."

Phil looked up from his cards. "JARVIS is meant to emulate a human. Stark's technology is extremely advanced. You won't run into anything like him outside of Stark's property for years to come."

Steve nodded. He enjoyed watching Phil compare his ruined cards to the new cards. When Phil slipped into sleep in the middle of explaining how long he'd looked for one of the cards, Steve carefully gathered them all back into their box. Then he settled down into the comfy chair Tony had moved into Phil's room. Steve opened his sketchbook and started drawing.

****

Clint took Natasha along when he went out to find textbooks for Steve.

"Stark is just going to replace them with a tablet once he sees them, you know."

With a shrug, Clint put down the book he was looking at. "Doesn't mean Steve won't appreciate them."

"Hmm." Natasha handed him a textbook on the history of computers. "Here."

"Thanks." Clint added it to the pile he was gathering. "I think he's getting used to Coulson's fanboying."

"The trading cards were nice." She handed him another book. "Phil was worried about you."

Clint frowned at the book in his hands. "He interrupted your interrogation to let you know."

"I'm glad he did." She leaned into his side. "He wanted Loki's head on a platter for Loki taking you. Thor wouldn't have talked him out of it."

"Thor's a damn puppy." He took a breath and picked up the ones they'd decided to get. "The Hulk seemed smart."

Natasha nodded. "I think he was frightened when he fixated on me in the helicarrier." She watched the clerk ring up the books. "He didn't even huff at me after he'd punched Thor."

Clint grinned. "I would have liked that on tape. Thor said it was a valiant strike."

The clerk looked at them both before scanning the next book.

"He is a puppy."

****

Steve loved the textbooks. He didn't like all the annotations Tony put in any of the technology related ones, but then he knew now that Tony wasn't doing things solely to make him mad. Steve getting mad was just a bonus to Tony.

Reading, Steve tried not to pay attention to the argument Tony and Bruce were having over dinner as Clint and Natasha ganged up on Phil with thrown bits of food. Steve caught a couple of the bits of roll while he was trying to work out what the meaning of the paragraph he was on when it occurred to him everything had gone quiet. 

He looked up. "What?"

Tony pointed at him with his fork. "How'd you catch that without looking?"

Steve looked down at the piece of roll in his hand. "Oh. My spatial awareness became prefect instead of just very good after...changing."

"Huh." Tony pursed his lips. "You know dyslexics are usually really good with spatial things."

Steve rolled his eyes as the rest of the team started arguing with Tony about dyslexia and went back to his textbook.

****

Steve watched Clint trying the draw on his newest bow with one eye as he read his latest textbook. It was about sexuality and Steve was finding it very enlightening. "This makes much better sense than what I was taught."

Clint fired an arrow and then turned towards Steve. "Yeah?"

"I mean, everyone knows about people that go with their own gender, but no one _talks_ about it. This has a whole chapter just on that."

Clint smiled. "Took a while to find one that listed all the possible labels people use now."

Steve looked up from the book. "Thank you for all this. SHEILD was willing to give me information, but not always in a way that was useful or understandable."

With a nod, Clint turned back to his bow. "You're welcome. If you decide you like men I think you could do a lot worse than Phil."

Steve watched Clint loose more arrows as he thought.

****

It took several weeks for Phil to feel up to a full day of being awake and upright. He watched Steve working through another set of textbooks. These were printed from digital textbooks that Stark helped pick. They hadn't told Steve that, though. 

Phil sat down across from Steve. "I, uh, got something for you."

Steve smiled as he looked up from his book. "For me?"

"Yes." Phil sat the tablet and stylist down between them. "This is a dedicated tablet for sketching."

It took them a few minutes to get Steve used to the buttons and the non-paper feel of the tablet. Phil smiled as he watched Steve play with what the sensitivity of the tip did to the width of the strokes.

****

Tony plopped down beside Steve and took the pen substitute right out of his hand. "When are you going to tell them you want to go out with them?"

"What?" Steve frowned at him.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Bruce keeps saying just give you time." He threw the sylist at Steve, who caught it and tucked it away. "I have. I totally have. You are driving me insane."

"Tony."

"Seriously, how hard is it to just rearrange your brain? You've already picked up modern tech faster than anyone expected."

"Tony."

"What?" Tony glared at him.

Steve raised his eyebrows. "Who exactly is 'them'?"

"You are clueless. Utterly clueless." Tony sighed as he flopped back on the couch. "Phil has a huge crush on you. Clint can't take his eyes off your ass. Who do you think I'm talking about?"

"Tony!" Steve leaned towards him. "I can't go with both of them! That's infidelity."

"Oh, seriously? That's why you haven't done anything?" Tony sprung up from his sprawl. "Come on."

"What?" Steve didn't move as Tony yanked on him to stand up. "Oh, no, no. We are not bothering either of them with this."

"Oh, fine." Tony sat back down. "JARVIS! Ask Clint and Agent to come here."

"Right away, sir."

Steve smacked Tony gently on the back of his head. "Tony, we have discussed calling Phil that title for a first name."

Tony grinned.

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do hope you don't mind me leaving it there. I couldn't choose between Phil and Clint for Steve to end up with, which is why it came out this way. If you don't like it say so and I'll write you something different. :) I don't want you get something you don't like.
> 
> Edit: Now there's more that goes toward a poly relationship between the three, but I'm going to leave the old note in place. Thanks.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talking, adjusting, and more talking.

****

Clint frowned as soon as he saw Steve's panicked expression. "What is..."

Tony jumped up, twisting to avoid an attempt by Steve to grab him. "Come here, Barton. Here, sit. Let me get you a drink."

Clint gingerly sat and stared at Tony's back as he headed to the room's bar. Clint leaned over to Steve, who was hiding his face in his hand. "Cap, do you know what's going on?"

With a sigh, Steve pulled his hand down his face and he leaned his head back on the couch. "Tony is trying to be helpful."

"Ah." Clint still didn't know what was going on, but hearing that made Steve being embarrassed make more sense. Sitting back up, Clint watched Tony open a beer and start back across the room. He let Tony set the bottle down on the side table at Clint's elbow. "Thanks, Tony."

Tony beamed as he flopped into a seat across from them. 

Clint took a swig of the beer and then relaxed into the pillows as Phil came in, stopped, and then turned to glare at Tony.

"You have been told to leave this alone, Stark."

Tony popped up out of his seat and circled behind Phil and began herding him further into the room. "Come on. We talked about this."

"You mean you cornered me in the elevator and I was considering tazing you when Bruce distracted you." Phil allowed Tony to herd him to the other side of Steve. He sat down slowly, his chest and back still tender.

Tony brought a glass of water for Phil and sat it on the table next to him. "You all need a jumpstart. Maybe an instructions manual."

Steve kicked at Tony's foot. "Tony!"

Tony spread his hands. "What? It isn't like they don't want you, you big dofus." He cocked his head and smirked. "You're everyone's jerk off fantasy at some point."

Steve's ears started to go red.

Clint looked from Steve's blushing to Tony's amused smirking. "Wait. What..."

"Tony is just trying to embarrass me." Steve moved to stand, but Tony lunged forward and blocked him.

"I admit I like seeing you turn red." Tony put up his hand as Phil started to say something. "Wait. Just listen. One second, okay?" He straightened up. "You all..." He circled his finger to include all three of them. "Everyday, each of you watch the other two like you are afraid they are going to disappear." He scratched the back of his head. "I...Look, just don't pass up being happy because it wouldn't be traditional."

They all blinked at Tony, who pushed up to his feet.

"Just think it over." He pointed over his shoulder to the bar with his thumb. "Get drunk, well, not Steve, but you know what I mean...and don't regret anything tomorrow." He took long strides to get to the elevator and disappeared into it.

As the door closed, Clint took another drink of his beer. He looked over Steve's hunched form to Phil. "You two should get together."

Phil frowned with his eyebrows and put a gentle hand on Steve's back. He started to rub in small circles as he looked at Clint. "Why do you leave yourself out of a possible relationship?"

Clint shrugged with one shoulder as he added his hand to Steve's back. "I'm not good for anyone." He pulled back as Steve sat up abruptly, turned his head, and stared at Clint.

"What?"

"Not good?" Steve glanced at Phil and then back to Clint. "What do you mean?"

Clint finished off his beer and wandered over to the bar to find another. He shrugged as he pulled the opener from the drawer he'd seen Tony stash it in. "I don't bring anything that anyone wants in their home." He popped open the bottle of beer. "I'm a marksman. That's all."

Phil stood and intercepted Clint as he started back towards the couch. "Give me that."

Clint handed his beer over. Phil took Clint's elbow and lead him to sit where Phil had been. Then, Phil sat the beer on a side table and sat across from Clint, pinning Clint's knees together with his own knees.

"I have spent a lot of effort getting you to have self-esteem for anything besides your ability to hit your target." Phil captured Clint's wrists as the he started to push himself up and away from Phil. "Stop. Listen to me."

Clint froze for a moment before squirming in place. "Okay."

"You are more than just marksmanship, Clint."

Steve put his hand over Phil's on Clint's wrists. "You are a good man."

Clint looked from Phil to Steve and back again. "Who's bet are you trying to win?"

Phil closed his eyes and shook his head. "Barton."

Steve wrapped his arm around Clint's shoulders. "No bet, Clint. Just us three guys." He bit his lip. "The three of us. All in together. Could that work for...everyone?" Steve looked at Phil.

Clint ducked his head as Phil moved his hands to Clint's forearms. Phil pressed down with his thumbs. "I won't say that Tony was wrong. I...admire both of you."

Clint's eyes snapped up and he stared at Phil. "Wait...Me? Me, too?" He turned his hand in Phil's hold to point his thumb at Steve. "Both of us?"

Phil softened his expression and squeezed Clint's arms. "Yes."

They turned to look at Steve, who had been watching them. He rubbed his thumb across the bridge of his nose. "I never..." He frowned and pulled his hands back into his own lap. "The textbook says that there's all sorts of relationships now. That people can be with more than one person." He looked at each of them, the tips of his ears turning red. "You'd both be okay with it?"

Clint frowned. "You don't want just Phil?"

Steve gently wrapped his hand around the back of Clint's neck and then he swept his fingertips up and down the column of Clint's neck. "I want..." He lifted his chin. "I want both of you at the same time. I don't care if that's greedy. I just...Can we do that? All of us, together?"

Clint leaned into Steve's side and wrapped a foot around the back of Phil's thigh. "All of us."

Phil smiled a little as he eased to the edge of the chair he was sitting in. "The three of us, yes."

****

Bruce smacked Tony on the shoulder. "You shouldn't push at people like that, Tony."

"Why not?" Tony turned off the video feed as the threesome started talking sleeping arrangements for the night. "They'll be awesome. It also means Coulson won't be such a bear in the morning once he's getting some."

With a sigh, Bruce pointed Tony at one of Bruce's current models. "Tony, no talking about other people's sex lives or lack thereof, please."

Tony shrugged and adjusted a variable. "What about yours? Can we talk about that?"

"No." Bruce frowned at the new projected results. "I don't have anything to talk about."

"Well, that's just depressing." Tony moved another variable. "Do you want to have something to talk about?"

Bruce glanced up from the new results. "Is this your way of offering?" 

Tony made a face. "I could...You're handsome. I didn't think you wanted me for that sort of thing."

Bruce brushed the interface clear between them. "Tony." He raised his eyebrows. "What was that tone of voice about?"

Tony sighed. He came around the end of the table to sit on a stool next to Bruce. "Sex is a tool, you know? And they are using each other..."

Bruce bumped his shoulder into Tony's. "A tool?"

"Yeah." Tony gave him a why-are-you-being-weird look. "It currys favor, or distracts a target. Sometimes I use it to see if the person can see past the mask I'm using. It's a tool."

"Oh, Tony." Bruce pushed his glasses up and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What about people that love each other?"

Tony shrugged. "Makes a point. Or ties them tighter together so one of them won't leave as fast." He grimaced. "That's never worked right for me." Tony flicked his fingers at Bruce. "Are you mad? Did I say something wrong?"

Bruce sat his glasses down on the counter. "No, Tony. You didn't do anything wrong." He looked at Tony. "What about just sleeping beside someone? Have you tried that?"

Tony frowned. "Why? That's just a waste." He rubbed his ear. "Well, once, but I wasn't interested in fucking him since we were captives. He had a family."

Bruce touched Tony's shoulder. "How about we try sleeping beside each other in a bed instead of the lab?" He grinned. "An experiment, hmm?"

****

Steve ignored Natasha as he pounded on the heavy bag in front of him. She eased in beside him until she was so close he was going to elbow her chest on his pull back to punch the bag again. He stopped and hugged the bag. "What?"

She studied him. "Are you alright?"

He sighed and pushed off, moving around the bag to keep punching without her in his way. "Yes."

Natasha raised one eyebrow at him. "Why are you lying to me?"

Steve huffed. "I'll be alright. It isn't lying."

"You aren't alright at the moment." She held the bag more still for him. "Lying."

"Fine." He threw another punch and then stopped with his fist against the bag. "I don't know what to think of myself."

"What do you mean?"

Steve turned and grabbed up his towel. He scrubbed at the sweat on his face and neck. "Before...well, before. I really thought that I wanted Peggy." He glanced up at Natasha. "Just her, but I was always thinking about another person at the same time. Someone I didn't think I could...be with." He frowned. "I used to have..." He rubbed the blush creeping up his neck. "Dreams."

She softened her smile and settled on the floor at his feet. "Go on. I won't judge, Steve."

He found the weight holding him back eased at that. "The one I had most was all three of us were going...together. Is it still called dating now?"

Natasha nodded. "Yes."

He nodded. "Good." He looked at his hands. "When I woke. I didn't have dreams." He lifted his eyes to stare at the seam running down the side of the heavy bag. "I had nightmares of ice and freezing again." He bit his lip. "Until, suddenly it wasn't nightmares anymore."

"You started to have the good dreams again."

"Sort of." Steve looked back down at his hands. "The people changed into Clint and Phil." He rubbed his hands. "I looked in the book you and Clint got me on how people are labeled now. I couldn't find a word for me."

"Someone that wants two people at once romantically?"

He nodded. "Not more than that. Or less. Just..." He took a deep breath. "Two."

She scooted closer. "You feel that polyamory doesn't cover you quite right?"

He started bouncing his knee. "I...don't feel attracted right off." He looked at Natasha. "You're a really swell...lady. I just don't think like...I wouldn't..."

Natasha smiled. "You don't find yourself sexually attracted to me."

"Right." He rubbed his hand across his chin. "I don't find anyone...that. Not until I've known them for a while." Steve frowned. "The second person is easier to find myself wanting. Just not instantly."

"If you were in a threesome, would you want to date anyone outside of the other two people?"

Steve shook his head. "No." He frowned. "Is that selfish of me?"

"No, Steve." Natasha eased in closer and laid her head on his knee. "You aren't covered under one word. You sound like a demisexual committed polyamorous individual."

"That's a mouthful."

"Yes." She rolled her head on his thigh so she could look up at him. "They both love you. And each other. Clint is going to be more work. Phil can fade into the background so easily, without thinking about it, that you'll need to pay attention." She relaxed against him. "Remember that within the triangle the three of you make that there's still couples. Once in a while you'll need to be one-on-one for activities."

Steve ghosted his fingers across her hair. "I thought you'd threaten me about not hurting them."

Natasha beamed. "Do I really need to, Cap?"

"No. No, you don't." Steve felt the tension in her shoulders ease. "Thank you."

"No problem." She let her eyes close as Steve's fingers threaded deeper into her hair.

****


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More talking, watching a movie, sleeping together (just sleeping).

****

Phil Coulson flipped through his new and old trading cards as he thought. 

Dr. Banner settled into a chair across form him and started reading.

Phil picked one card and turned it over and over in its protective case.

"You okay, Agent Coulson?"

He glanced up to find Bruce looking at him over top of his scientific journal. Phil half-smiled. "Just thinking."

Bruce nodded. "You were looking apprehensive."

"A little." He sat down his cards and swept his hand down his tie. "It isn't every day I end up in a polyamorous relationship with Hawkeye and Captain America."

Bruce blinked slowly and then took his glasses off and pointed at Phil with them. "It isn't the costume you are dating though, is it?" He smiled a bit. "It's the person that's in the costume. The human."

Phil nodded. "Yes." He closed the trading card box. "I'm not as star struck as I was with...Steve to begin with."

"Sure." Bruce sat his glasses down on the couch next to him. "He's a little...hardheaded. Takes the shine right off your fantasies."

"You..." He leaned back into the chair behind him. "Really?"

Bruce shrugged. "For a while I dreamed about becoming him to stop...Well, to stop something bad in my life." Bruce put his glasses back on. "Glad to know you aren't letting yourself be roped into anything by Tony's pushing."

Phil frowned. "He means well." He stood. "I've never seen Stark take to someone like he's latched onto you, Doctor Banner."

Bruce's expression went wooden. "I don't think we are a good idea right now."

Phil sat back down. "If you are worrying about the Hulk..."

"No. Not...that exactly." Bruce shook his head. "Your files on Tony, they don't include everything."

"You've stumbled into his PTSD?"

Bruce's head came up fast. "What?" He frowned. "Not as such, well, maybe? I don't know that you'd label it that. I think it's all tied together, of course."

Phil cocked his head. "What are we talking about, Bruce?"

Bruce sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "He has these _ideas_ on sex which makes it a bad idea..."

"Teach him."

With a blink, Bruce dropped his hand. "What?"

"Teach him that his ideas don't apply to you and him." He stood again. "If that's what you want, Doctor."

Bruce pursed his lips. "I'll think about it."

****

Clint wasn't sure how he ended up in the middle. He got to hold the popcorn bowl, so that was something, but he felt, not fenced in, but hemmed maybe. Clint's left side was hot from the warmth coming off Steve and on Clint's right Phil was _leaning_ into him.

It was nice and weird all at once. Natasha was giving him genuine smiles from across the way and Clint kept frowning back at her because he didn't know what she was so happy about.

Tony's foot nudged his forearm. Clint leaned forward to look across Steve to where Tony was stretched out wit his head on Bruce's thigh and his feet in Steve's lap. "Popcorn."

Clint pushed on the sole of Tony's foot. "Sit up and get it yourself."

Tony pointed at his mouth. "You've got prefect aim."

Clint wanted to roll his eyes, but he could focus on something other than the creeping trapped feeling if he could throw things. He lobbed popcorn into Tony's mouth for a few minutes while Steve tried to decide what they were going to watch.

They were letting him chose from a JARVIS screened list to reduce the chances of a bad reaction in anyone. They'd limited it to the 1960's and prior to ease him through the various major changes he'd missed. It also gave him time to get used to the newer special effects by walking him through the history of them.

"Is this one alright?" Steve had _Bedknobs and Broomsticks_ up on the screen.

Tony practically bounced as he sat up. "Oh, this one, yeah."

Clint tried not to laugh as Natasha and Phil exchanged looks. 

Bruce cocked his head. "I've never seen it."

JARVIS started the movie and they watched. Tony slipped to the floor and ended up half on one of Clint's feet as he bobbed his whole torso along with the songs.

Bruce scooted closer to Steve after Tony moved to the floor.

It wasn't until later that it occurred to Clint that Tony had been distracting him from feeling uncomfortable the whole time.

****

Steve watched Clint bounce on the bed as Phil unbuttoned his shirt. He sat on the edge of a nearby chair and watched Clint's eyes get caught by the sight of Phil's angry looking scar. Steve started to distract Clint, but Phil just stepped right into Clint's space, between his knees.

"You didn't cause this."

Clint turned his head and Phil grabbed his chin and made him look at Phil's face.

"Barton, you didn't cause Loki to stab me."

Clint blinked and leaned forward to rest his ear on Phil's stomach. "Don't ever let me hurt anyone." He closed his eyes. "Please."

Phil glanced at Steve as he eased his fingers through Clint's hair. "You know that's a hollow promise."

Steve moved to sit next to Clint and he settled a hand on Clint's back. "We promise we'll do our best, Clint. Getting you back might take precedent to emotional injuries inflected in the process." He carefully didn't say what physical injuries he thought Phil would allow if it meant a chance at winning.

Clint nodded against Phil's stomach. "Can we...just sleep?"

Steve looked up at Phil frowning down at Clint's bent head. "If you hadn't asked I was going to." Steve shrugged at Phil when that got him to cock his head at Steve.

Steve moved to get his the pajama bottoms he was planning to sleep in. He stripped down to nothing as he listened to the murmurs of Phil telling Clint he was worth more than any classified information. Steve slipped his feet into the leg holes and started to pull the bottoms on.

"I could change my mind."

Steve looked over his shoulder to find Phil and Clint sitting side-by-side on the bed looking at him. "Oh." He pulled the bottoms over his butt and turned towards them. "I'm not...well..."

Clint flopped back on the bed. "Calm down, Cap. We aren't going to pounce on you."

Steve came over to the bed and snorted out a laugh as Phil pulled him down beside them and planted a kiss on Steve's temple.

"Maybe a little bit of pouncing."

Clint tugged on Steve's elbow and collapsed him down onto the covers. They tussled and Steve loved every moment of them not thinking about him being technically so much older. He held back his strength carefully, rolling with their moves, grinning at each laugh from them.

They ended up laying in a tangle, laughing. Clint was draped over Steve's side with one hand trailing down Phil's chest. Phil lay on his back, gasping for breath, the fingers of one hand tangled in Steve's pajamas and the other hand wrapped around Clint's bicep.

Steve eased the arm Phil was trapping under himself in so it tipped Phil most of the way against Steve. Phil's breathing settled into something less painful sounding. 

Clint patted Phil's shoulder. "No wrestling for you."

Phil smirked even as he panted. "Not for a while at least."

****

Tony frowned at Bruce asleep beside him. He sat up and ran his hands through his sweat soaked hair. He blew a breathe out and looked sharply at Bruce as he came awake.

"Tony?"

Tony rubbed at his arc reactor. "Yeah?"

Bruce tapped Tony's side along his ribs with a fingertip. "You alright?"

"No." Tony bit his lip. "I'm alright."

Bruce sat up and rubbed his face with one hand. "What happened?"

Tony shrugged. "Nothing."

With a sigh, Bruce adjusted the blankets bunched at his waist. "Tony, it isn't nothing. You can just say you don't want to tell me. That's okay."

"It isn't that." Tony picked at the fabric over his thigh. "I can't expla..." He looked at Bruce. "You really don't want me for sex?"

Bruce's eyebrows drew together. "I'm going to assume that question actually connects to something else in your big brain." He lay back down. "No, Tony. I don't want you for sex. I'm going back to sleep now." He patted clumsily at Tony's back. "Wake me if you have a nightmare."

Tony frowned and sat there until Bruce was snoring lightly beside him. "JARVIS?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Bruce meant all that?"

"Yes, sir, he did. Dr. Banner appears interested in your person as a whole."

"Huh." Tony lay back down and stared at Bruce when he cuddled closer to Tony. "Weird." He wormed his way onto his side, facing away from Bruce and watched the shadows the arc's light produced on the far wall. "New equation to solve...JARVIS."

JARVIS adjusted the temperature in the room to better accommodate the two men now that the covers were bunched around their waists.

****


	4. Chapter 4

****

Steve wondered into the kitchen and was pleased the fancy coffee maker had a normal cup of coffee filling under the spout. "Thanks, JARVIS."

"Of course, Captain."

Steve took the cup over to the kitchen table and sat down. He struggled his way into a not-quite-newspaper on the kitchen table's screen. "I almost asked about flying cars when I found out I was in another century."

Natasha came clear into the kitchen and found herself a cup for orange juice. "Why didn't you?"

Steve shrugged. "After the Times Square thing I thought that maybe I was still being coddled. Then I decided that people as a group were scary enough as ground drivers."

She smiled and settled across from him. "Are you alright?"

He frowned as he poked a story on the screen to expand it. "You've known Clint a while, right?"

"Yes." She wrapped her fingers around her cup. "What's worrying you?"

Steve tapped the news story closed. "Has he always been, well, unsure of his own worth outside of the job?"

Natasha's eyebrows climbed and then she cocked her head. "He's a messy contradiction. He's cocky about his aim and abilities with weapons, with his bow." She took a sip of her juice. "He shows venerability about his worth in connection to everything else."

Steve nodded. "Why are you trusting me with them both?"

Her expression brightened. "You are the most ernest person I've ever met. I thought from the reports that Thor would be, but you are actually a lot more ernest than him." She patted the back of his hand. "That isn't a bad thing."

"I didn't think it was." Steve turned his hand over so his fingertips touched the center of her palm. "Thank you for deciding I can handle this...relationship with them both."

She smiled as she stood up. "Keep in mind that Stark is going to tease you."

Steve groaned and turned to the screen to find news he could focus on.

*****

Bruce looked down at Dum-E shoving on his knee. "Hey, what?" Dum-E kept shoving. "Uhm, JARVIS, do you know what's going on?"

"It appears Dum-E wants you to check on Sir's current condition."

Bruce blinked. "Okay." He patted Dum-E's "head" as he moved around him. "Is there a reason I should?" He held the door for Dum-E to follow him out into the hallway.

JARVIS' voice followed them down the hallway. "Dum-E's tolerance for certain parameters have fallen in the wake of Sir's captivity. Normally, I am able to reassure him as to the continued functioning of Sir."

"Understandable." Bruce glanced up at the ceiling. He wasn't used to JARVIS being vague. He wondered if JARVIS was trying to get around orders laid down by Tony.

Bruce opened the door to Tony's workshop and let Dum-E go ahead of him. Dum-E lead the way through the clutter to Tony curled in a corner made by two of Tony's cars. Bruce crouched down and eased his way forward. "Hey, Tony."

Tony blinked blank eyes and curled tighter into his corner. "JARVIS tattled."

"Actually, Dum-E told me." Bruce blocked Tony's foot as he kicked half-heartedly towards Bruce. "You're in your workshop."

Tony's hand scrambled at his shirt where it covered his arc reactor. "Everything is cold." He kicked again.

Bruce gently caught Tony's leg by the ankle. He pressed his fingers into the pressure points in Tony's calf. "You're leaning against steel and sitting on concrete. You're bound to be cold." He shuffled closer, hugging the car towards Tony's legs so if Tony felt the need to flee he had a clear path forward.

With a huff, Tony turned and latched onto Bruce. He tucked his face into Bruce's shoulder. "Not good."

Bruce rubbed pressure points along Tony's spine. "That's okay though. You don't have to be anywhere today, okay?"

Tony nodded against Bruce. "I can't break."

Bruce eased his rubbing up to points along Tony's neck. "You aren't breaking. You are just healing some cracks. It will be alright." He tugged on Tony. "Let's get you someplace warmer, hmm?"

****

Phil settled into a corner of Clint's nest. "You still feel more comfortable here?"

Clint offered him a bottle of water. "I'm as safe as it gets here."

Phil took the bottle. "Steve is adjusting very well."

"Yeah." Clint settled against Phil's side, pressing all along Phil's side. "He gets really hot while he sleeps."

"He does." Phil took Clint's closer hand into his own and started massaging it. "You don't like being in the middle."

"Not always." Clint sighed as Phil worked on his hand. "I feel..." He frowned. "Trapped isn't the right word. Something. It makes me want to run, but I don't want to because I _like_ it too." He put his other hand out beside the one Phil was working on. "Stark noticed and was trying to distract me from it during the movie."

"Stark sees more than anyone gives him credit for." Phil switched to Clint's other hand. "You know that this new development doesn't preclude you from interacting with Natasha."

Clint blinked and leaned more on Phil. "She's been adjusting Steve's worldview. I'm good." He closed his eyes.

Phil dug his thumb into a spot on Clint's hand and followed the release of tension down to the fingertips. "Have you thought about what sort of sexual contact you want between yourself, Steve, and me?"

Clint hummed quietly and then fluttered his eyes open. His pupils were blown wide. "I don't care."

Phil moved up Clint's arms to include his forearms in the massage. "Yes, you do."

"Hmm." Clint rested his head on Phil's shoulder. "Steve should fuck us."

Phil smiled. "That sounds good." He tugged Clint's arms into a better postion and continued up Clint's normal draw arm to the elbow. "Anything else?"

"Do you want a certain thing?" Clint hummed as Phil worked on his arms.

"I would like to reduce you to a quivering, moaning puddle of goo."

Clint smiled as his eyes slowly closed. "I think you have."

With a wide grin, Phil switched arms and started working on Clint's other arm. "What's your dirtiest fantasy?"

"I can't believe you just asked me that." He pushed the arm Phil was working on more firmly into Phil's hold. "Anything?"

"Yes." Phil brushed his hand across Clint's hair. "Really, anything."

"Huh." Clint wiggled the fingers on one hand. "Fucking. Messy stuff where we try to outpace Steve's body's ability to heal. Where we're sore because he's fucked us so much."

"Sounds hot." Phil started pulling gently on Clint's arms down to the fingertips. "Tell me more."

****

Bruce arranged Tony under warmed blankets and after stripping to his boxers, climbed in as well. He gathered Tony to him and rubbed Tony's stomach in slow easy circles. Tony whimpered and pulled blankets to his chest, bunching them over the arc reactor. 

Bruce nuzzled the back of Tony's neck. "You are in your bedroom. Warm and alive."

Tony nodded and pressed his own hand on top of Bruce's hand on his stomach. "Harder."

Bruce firmed his touch, but didn't press down too hard. "You can feel it. I know it might not feel like it right now. You can feel me against you."

"Cold."

"I know." Bruce tucked his knees forward, pushing on Tony's legs to curl him more into the fetal position. "You feel cold. There's warmth all around you. I'm warm against you. Can you flex your toes for me?"

Tony made a little uncertain noise in this throat and then Bruce felt Tony's toes curl and relax.

"Good, Tony. That's really good. Can you tighten the muscles of your ankles and then relax?"

Tony turned his head just enough to see Bruce's face out of the corner of one eye. Then Tony ankles twitched.

Bruce kissed the back of Tony's neck. "Now your calves. Tighten and relax."

They worked their way up Tony's body. Bruce smiled as Tony slipped into sleep before they got to his ribs. He eased his way onto an elbow so he could look down on the blurry blob that was Tony to his unaided vision.

"You are strong." He rubbed gently at the middle of Tony's forehead. "Creative, really creative." He moved the rubbing to the point of Tony's cheekbones. "Full of energy." Bruce moved down to rub along Tony's neck. "So deserving of love."

Tony's body relaxed more as Bruce kept rubbing and talking.

****

Steve's eyebrows rose as Phil stirred a drunk looking Clint into their bedroom. "What did he get into?"

Clint smiled wide and wiggled fingers at him. "Phil broke me."

Phil rolled his eyes and gently pushed Clint towards the bed. "Lay down before you fall over."

"Hmm. Sounds good." Clint crawled into bed.

Steve eased up beside Phil. "What happened?"

"I massaged Clint's hands and up his arms." Phil flexed his hands. "He responded more strongly than I thought he would."

Steve nodded. "So...not drunk?"

Phil patted Steve's upper arm. "Not this time."

"Okay." Steve followed them to bed and arranged them with Clint in the middle. Steve watched as Phil adjusted pillows to better support his chest. "Did you make your own hands sore?"

Phil rubbed his thumb into the palm of the other hand. "A little bit. I'm fine."

Steve reached over Clint and pulled carefully on Phil's wrist. "Here, let me."

Phil stared as Steve started manipulating Phil's fingers in side-to-side motions. "What are you doing?"

"Your fingers usually do up and down moves. Curling, uncurling. They don't go back and forth to the side." He took ahold of the finger near the lowest joint and rotated the skin back and forth around the finger just a little.

"Oh." Phil let his eyes slip closed as Steve worked on his other hand. "I want to keep you."

Steve patted Phil on the hip after he started to snore. "I'm staying right here." He got his newest textbook from the side table and continued reading in the low light. "I wonder if there's a textbook for people in a relationship with a traumatized person."

JARVIS started a new textbook printing.

****


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony isn't okay, but then neither is anyone else.

****

Steve looked down at the book that Dum-E was trying to hand him. "What is this?"

"It is a text for recommended actions concerning individuals in relationships with someone recovering from trauma."

Steve resisted the urge to look at the ceiling as JARVIS spoke. Tony didn't and Steve tried to follow his example in how to deal with Tony's assistant intelligence. "Okay. Thank you, JARVIS."

"Might I suggest reading chapter four first, Captain Rogers?"

Flipping to that chapter, Steve nodded as he read the first paragraph. "Yes, thanks." He closed the book and tapped the spine into his other hand. "JARVIS, is there a place where I can read and no one will bother me?"

****

Bruce raised his eyebrows. "Is he headed down here now, JARVIS?"

"Yes, Dr. Banner."

"Uh." Bruce adjusted his lab coat over his shoulders. "Alright. You did a good thing. Thank you for warning me, JARVIS." Bruce deliberately put his back to the entrance and worked on lining up the samples he needed to look over.

He ignored the whoosh of the door and the quiet footsteps. Steve was a soldier and while he didn't move like Natasha automatically did, he didn't stomp like someone who had never needed to be quiet either. Bruce moved a sample into place and listened to Steve fidget before sitting down on the couch along the far wall.

Bruce waited several minutes before peeking at Steve. The man was deep in his book and frowning. He looked like he needed to be making notes. Bruce gathered up a small notebook he hadn't started using yet and a pen that clicked, because watching Steve's face lit up when he made a ballpoint pen retract and extend was still endearing, and set them down at Steve's elbow.

"Bruce."

He froze with his hand barely away from the notebook and pen. "Yes?"

Steve closed his book and took the pen, a small smile showing as he clicked it a couple of times. Then, Steve looked up at him. "Thank you for letting me share your space."

Bruce smiled and shrugged. "You're welcome." He sat down as Steve gestured to the empty spot on the couch. "Are you alright?"

Steve rolled the pen over in his hands. "No." He huffed and leaned back against the couch. "I should be fine, but I'm..." He looked down at his hands. "Did you know there are artists that used just a ballpoint pen to draw?"

Bruce nodded.

Steve clicked the pen and pulled Bruce's hand onto his thigh. He started drawing as he talked. "I feel like I'm behind on everything. I know how something works, but not why we use it like we do now. And other things I don't have a clue how it works, but I can see why it is there."

Bruce watched as Steve worked and concentrated on not twitching at the tickling feel of the pen tip. "That would be hard."

"Not as hard as people." Steve frowned and turned Bruce's hand a little to keep drawing. "Everyone is...different. All of us are in this book that JARVIS printed for me and I don't know how to make it better."

"What do you mean?" Bruce let Steve roll his arm over to keep working.

"The book is about helping with trauma recovery. No one calls it shell shock anymore, right?"

"Not usually, no."

Steve nodded. "I found a description for various coping behavior." He stopped drawing for a moment to stare at his feet before going back to drawing. "For helping with conditions that express themselves through how we operate."

"Sure." Bruce frowned at the back of Steve's bent head. "And all of that bothers you?"

"Not..sort..." Steve sighed. "We're all smart and adults. If I help then the person will know that's what I'm trying to do."

"Does that negate the help?" Bruce shifted so Steve could get at more of his arm.

"I don't know." Steve extended the drawing into the inner side of Bruce's arm. "What do you think?"

"I..." Bruce stopped and blinked. "I think you help anyway. Beating yourself up about what you said under Loki's spear's influence isn't going to fix anything."

Steve lifted the pen from skin with a quick jerk. "What?"

Bruce took the chance to flex his fingers were they were getting stiff. "I think you are a good tactician. You think through everything, all the time." He used his free hand to pat Steve's free arm. "Sometimes trauma recovery is allowing the damaged person to trust in you. Giving them the room to let themselves learn that you won't hurt them."

Steve went back to drawing. "I don't think I know enough to help anyone."

"Does my file talk about my childhood?"

"What?" Steve stopped and looked at Bruce. "What do you mean?"

Bruce smiled softly. "Does it mention my father? Who would beat me and called me a monster?" He gestured between them. "You are much stronger than me like this. A lot like the disparage when I was little around him. You could probably even get me knocked out before I could transform into the other guy."

Steve stared at him. "Oh."

Bruce closed his eyes and grinned. "Sometimes you don't have to know what you are doing to help." He flexed his fingers. "Finish your drawing."

****

Clint pointed the arrow where Tony said and held the bow taunt. "Like this?"

"Yep." Tony fiddled with something and a grid of lasers started to play over Clint. "Just a few seconds."

Clint held still until Tony said he could relax and then cocked his head at the model of him, bow, quiver, and suit in the air between them. "You couldn't just break into SHEILD databases?"

"I did that." Tony fiddled with some control and suddenly there were numbers everywhere. "Does the arm guard bother you?"

Clint sat on the floor and watched the play of lights as Tony moved things. "I'm used to it."

Tony looked around the model at him. "This isn't about being used to something, Barton. We are trying to upgrade everything."

Clint looked down at his bow. "We can't upgrade me, Tony."

Tony froze. "No." He dropped off the stool he was sitting on and crouched down with Clint. "I'm not upgrading you. Just your equipment. The stuff to keep you alive and the bad guys down." He plopped onto his butt and sighed. "It all feels like your fault, doesn't it?"

Clint jerked slightly and gripped his bow a little tighter. "What?"

Tony sighed. "Everything is dependent on a move you made. That's what you tell yourself, right? That if only I'd done _this_ or zigged instead of zagging then, insert whatever you feel you failed, would be so much better off."

With a slight nod, Clint curled around his knees more compactly.

"That's total bullshit, though."

"What?"

Tony made a face. "Things happen, okay? When you know something than you can make better decisions. You made decisions based on knowledge that didn't include getting made into a puppet."

Clint picked at the knee of his pants. "Like you didn't know about Stane beforehand."

With a jerk, Tony closed his eyes. "I should have known."

"That's bullshit."

Tony's eyes snapped open. "Did you just call bullshit on _me_?"

Clint leaned forward. "I sure did." He pointed at Tony. "Just because you were the head of the company didn't mean that you knew everything. Big companies will always have people that are actively hiding things."

"It was some pretty big things."

Clint shrugged. "Lies make for more, bigger lies." He cocked his head. "By your reasoning, I should have known my brother was caught up with my mentor's plan to steal money from every town we went through with the circus." He gestured to the bow on the floor. "They both worked to keep me from knowing. I did shows and practiced so much I could barely see straight to eat dinner."

"That's different."

"I should have seen it. You should have seen it. Both us were worked into the ground at the time. Don't tell me otherwise. Coulson has the reports. I can get them." Clint raised his eyebrows.

Tony grimaced. "I have this urge to hit you for logic-ing me out of my guilt."

Clint just grinned. "Awesome."

They sat there quietly for several minutes before Tony pulled up the quiver model and started to fiddle. He looked at Clint out of the corner of his eyes. "How'd you find out?"

"Stumbled into a deal being made." Clint ran his fingers over his bow. "I wouldn't join and my brother beat the shit out of me on my mentor's order." He looked up at Tony. "Homeless and nearly dead in one night."

Tony exploded the quiver view and pointed at an area. "What arrowheads do you the most good?"

Clint looked over the models of arrowheads lining themselves up in the air for his inspection. "On most missions just a normal mid-broad head." He touched that arrowhead model and it reappeared by Tony's hand.

Tony multiplied it and started putting them into a new model of the quiver he was working with. "You aren't homeless now."

Clint watched him work. "No. I, uh, turned criminal to eat and Coulson ended up assigned to kill me."

"Stole from SHEILD?"

"Didn't know what it was at the time, but yeah." Clint nudged the edge of the arrowheads to put them where he thought Tony would end up moving them in the model. "Coulson cornered me and instead of killing me he asked me when I'd eaten last."

"Agent is a mother hen." Tony nodded at the arrowhead placement and started inserting a model of something Clint didn't recognize. "Half-hearted criminal if you were still starving."

"Nothing tasted good back then."

"Ah." Tony pushed the quiver out into the air between them. "I couldn't eat after I came back from Afganistan." He frowned. "Ate a burger, but it tasted like murky water and sand."

Clint turned his bow over and ran his fingertips along the string. "Did that get better?"

Tony shrugged. "Eh. Most of the time things don't taste like sand, but I get murky water pretty often."

"That sucks." Clint collapsed his bow. "Anything that helps? Spices or certain foods?"

With a wave of a hand, Tony was focused on an arrowhead model. "Garlic cuts it pretty well. Pizza with enough cheese. I mostly just worked on my gag reflex until I had prefect control."

"Hmmm." Clint nodded and let the conversation turn to how many arrow shafts he typically broke on a mission.

****

Coulson frowned at the text from Clint that said to put more garlic into Starks' dinner. He texted back asking if it was a prank. As he waited on the reply, Phil turned the soup's burner down to hold the temperature.

Clint walked in and put his bow case on the end of the counter. "Not a prank, Phil. Add more garlic to his."

Phil could see the tense worry underneath the normal happy-go-lucky exterior Clint used like a thick wall around himself. "Alright." He pulled fresh garlic out of the fridge and found a tiny pan to roast it in. "Is there a reason?"

Clint leaned against Phil's back and went limp enough to put some of his weight onto Phil's shoulders. "He is way more hurt than Nat figured."

Phil flipped the garlic in the pan and mashed it. "I know."

"He's tasting murky water when he eats."

With a will, Phil kept his body from tensing up. "That has been years ago."

"I don't think that matters, does it?"

"No, of course not. I just had thought his mind had let some of it go by now." Phil put the garlic into the bottom of the red bowl. "Red is Stark's."

Clint pulled away and lined up the bowl. "He likes red like I like purple doesn't he?"

"Seems like it." Phil ladled soup into the bowls. "You pried him out of his workshop?"

"Nah. Asked Bruce to do it."

Steve appeared in the doorway. "Asked Bruce to do what?"

Clint leaned against Steve when he stopped at the counter. "To get Tony out of his workshop."

"Oh." Steve sniffed and frowned. "How much garlic did you use?"

Phil handed Steve a blue bowl. "Just in the one for Tony. This one is yours. More bland."

"Okay." Steve took a sip and smiled. "This is great." He helped Clint move the bowls to the table. "Is Natasha going to be here?"

Phil glanced at Natasha's bowl. "She should be."

Bruce shoved Tony through the door. "You are eating."

"It's soup!" Tony frowned as he say everyone else. "I don't like soup."

Clint gestured to the red bowl by him. "Phil likes garlic in things."

Tony's eyes flickered to him and back to Clint so Phil let a bland smile grace his face for Tony to see.

Bruce nudged Tony. "Move, Tony. Natasha wants in."

Natasha moved around them and came to sit on between Clint and Steve. "It's soup. Tony won't eat soup." She looked at Phil. "You know that."

Tony frowned as he sat down with Bruce on his other side from Clint. "Why do you know that?"

Natasha cocked her eyebrow at him. "I did have to try to feed you for a week. It sucked."

"Oh, right." Tony spooned his soup and sniffed it. He looked surprised. "This smells good."

Steve looked between Tony and Clint, who made a tiny shake of his head. Steve dropped his attention back to his own food.

Bruce lifted his whole bowl to his face to smell and then set it back down. He pointed at it and then at Tony's as Tony had his eyes closed, savoring a spoonful. Phil pursed his lips and shook his head. Bruce looked at Tony and then down at the soup.

Phil could see the moment Bruce's brain made the connection. Bruce went very still and Phil mentally checked through the room's arsenal until Bruce started to breathe again.

Tony opened his eyes and pointed at Phil with his spoon. "This is officially awesome soup, Agent."

Phil ducked his head slightly.

Steve frowned. "Tony, please quit calling him that for a first name."

Tony shrugged and took another spoonful of soup. "He doesn't mind."

Phil shrugged as Steve turned towards him. "Better than some things he could call me."

Steve sighed.

****

Steve waited until Tony had pulled Bruce out of the kitchen towards the labs and Phil was elbow deep in dish water before he asked. "Why did Tony's bowl smell so strongly of garlic?"

Phil handed him a bowl to rinse. "He has triggers. Garlic is a blocker for a trigger surrounding food."

Clint took the bowl to dry it. "He means Tony is tasting cave water when he eats and garlic cuts that."

Phil sighed. "Clint, Tony isn't going to want everyone knowing that."

Clint pointed at the ceiling. "JARVIS hasn't interrupted so there you go."

Steve frowned. "What does JARVIS have to do with it?"

"I believe Agent Barton thinks that I would express an opinion on the dissemination of knowledge harmful to Master Stark."

Clint nodded. "He'd have butted in and told me to shut up."

Phil flicked water at him. "Quit telling people anyway."

Steve rinsed the next bowl. "Is it every time he eats?"

"From what he said, I think so." Clint took that bowl to dry. "He said pizza with enough cheese doesn't do it, and garlic helps. Nothing else."

"He ate that shawarma." Steve tapped his fingers on the rim of the sink. "He is rather thin."

Phil handed the last bowl to Steve to rinse. "Tony is able to force himself to do things he needs to do and doesn't want to do. It explains the awful green shakes he had Dum-E make him." When the other two looked at him, Phil shrugged. "Nothing tastes like celery and seaweed besides seaweed."

Clint wrinkled his nose. "Yuck."

****

Tony trailed his fingers down Bruce's art covered arm. "He's really good."

Bruce watched his skin make goosebumps in the wake of Tony's fingers. "He is." He gathered Tony's hand between his own. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, mostly." Tony looked confused. "Why did Clint tell Phil to add garlic to my dinner?"

"I don't know."

"Uh." Tony tapped his fingers of his free hand on Bruce's arm. "I told Clint about how food tastes wrong sometimes. I said garlic helped and Phil just added more to mine like it wasn't any trouble."

Bruce bit his lip. "Maybe it wasn't any trouble. Maybe they were trying to help you be able to eat more."

Tony blinked. "That's..." He touched the Iron Man on Bruce's arm. "Why?"

Bruce pointed at the whole team on his arm, ringing Agent Coulson, with the Hulk grinning at them. "We're a team."

"Never really had a team before." Tony cocked his head. "I don't have a clue what to do with it."

"Neither do I." He patted Tony's shoulder. "Let's go look at that arrowhead you are designing for Clint."

****


	6. Chapter 6

****

Steve woke up before the others. He nudged Phil's elbow away from poking him in the stomach and shifted Clint enough the man wasn't drooling on Steve's chest. Steve lay still listening to them sleep. When Clint's breathing hitched and he started to mumble, Steve was able to ease the Clint out of his nightmare by whispering in his ear the whereabouts and status for the team.

Phil's hand joined Steve's on Clint's side. "He's still asleep."

"You sound surprised." Steve shifted and pulled Phil forward so he was resting against Steve's side, taking pressure off Phil's healing injury.

"A little." Phil brushed the backs of his fingers across Clint's arm. "He has loud nightmares now that he's lost most of his hearing."

"He said something about an explosion."

"Yes. A mission that went badly." Phil frowned. "He was caught in explosion that shouldn't have happened." Phil rubbed at his chest scar.

"Is that way he's always talking on the com lines? He's trying to make sure he can still hear."

"Partly." Phil smiled at Clint as he twitched in his sleep. "Mostly he's just a loud mouth."

Steve smiled. "That sounds about right." He ran a hand down Phil's back. "How are you feeling?"

Phil grinned and pushed himself up onto his elbow. "Good." He leaned down and kissed Steve's shoulder. "What about you?"

Steve caught Phil's mouth in a slow kiss. He pulled back as he held Phil close. "Very good."

They grinned at each other and went back to kissing. Phil soon moved to making marks on Steve's shoulder and neck. He pulled back to watch the marks fade and then started over making more.

Steve lay panting, his hand roaming up and down Clint's back as Phil sucked hard on the captured mouthful of skin below Steve's ear.

Clint murmured in his sleep and buried his face in the other side of Steve's neck. Steve gasped at the feel of their breath on either side of his neck.

Phil poked Clint in the shoulder. "Clint, wake up and join the party."

Clint blinked and rubbed his eyes. He looked confused for a moment and then grinned. "Making out?"

Phil nodded and they both attacked Steve's neck. Steve panted and pulled them closer. They went rounds of pulling up marks and letting them fade until Steve whimpered and wormed his hand into Clint's shorts.

Clint laughed as he pushed his shorts down and off. Phil slipped his own underwear off and they got Steve naked to match. Steve licked his lip as he wrapped his hand around Clint's cock.

Phil encouraged them with little touches to Clint's scrotum and small nudges here and there on Steve. He kept up the kissing as the other two lost focus enough to just pant into each other's necks.

Clint's hand found Phil's hip and latched on, pulling Phil tight in against Steve as Clint started to rock into Steve's hold on him.

Steve moaned as Phil thumbed the head of Steve's dick. Phil smiled against Steve's skin and pressed his fingers into the hair at the base of Steve's shaft. Clint bucked hard as Steve's fingers tightened around him.

Phil added his hand to the mix by swirling his fingertips across the head of Clint's cock. With a hitched gasp, Clint clutched at them as he came. Phil helped Steve tease more shudders out of Clint until he made a desperate sounding whimper and curled in on himself.

They eased him down between them and Phil pulled Steve across Clint's limp body for a long kiss.

****

Bruce rolled Tony over onto his back. "Hey, hey."

Tony woke, failing. "Wha...What?"

"You were crying, Tony."

"Oh." Tony swiped at his cheeks and sat up. "Sorry."

Bruce shook his head. "Nothing to be sorry about, Tony."

"See, this is way just sleeping next to each other is dumb. You aren't getting anything out of putting up with me."

"I'm not putting up with you." Bruce maneuvered them around until he was sitting against the headboard with Tony leaning against his chest. "I _like_ you, Tony. I'm not suffering nor do I need anything."

Tony plucked at Bruce's shirt as they sat there quietly. After several minutes, Tony splayed his hand out across Bruce's chest. "You don't want sex?"

Bruce wrapped his arms around Tony and put his chin on the top of Tony's shoulder. "Listen, sex is great. Sex with you would be awesome. I just don't need sex as some form of payment because you have nightmares."

"Huh." Tony wrapped his arm up around Bruce's forearm. "Why do you have sex? If it isn't leverage?"

Bruce kissed Tony's shoulder. "It feels good and I like making my partner relaxed and sated."

Tony blinked and let his head loll on Bruce's shoulder. "That's weird."

With a soft smile, Bruce let his head rest against Tony's head. "Sure. Try to go back to sleep."

Tony yawned and they rearranged themselves so they were laying down.

Bruce pressed his nose to the tip of Tony's shoulder as they fell back asleep.

****

Natasha usually didn't worry about Tony's behavior, but the bewildered look he'd been wearing around Bruce lately had her wondering what could possibly be messing with Tony's head that badly. She slipped up beside Tony as he worked on a weapon design. "Are you alright?"

Tony jumped and pressed a hand to his chest as he tried to catch his breathe. "A bell...I'm going to affix a bell to you."

Nat smiled and hopped up on his desk. "You didn't answer the question."

He eyed her as he pulled his chair close and dropped into it. "Why are you asking?"

"I'm bored." Nat shrugged and cocked her head. "You've been working out something, but it has you stumped. I can tell it deals with Bruce, but I don't know if it is something I can help with."

"Why would you want to help?" Tony grabbed up a pen and started fiddling with it.

Nat shrugged. "You bewildered worries me."

Tony nodded and absently put down the pen. "It's Bruce."

Nat pushed down the urge to roll her eyes. "Okay."

"What do you think of sex?"

With a raised eyebrow, Nat cocked her head. "Sex in general?"

Tony huffed. "Bruce says sex isn't about power, leverage, or testing your partner." He scratched at the side of his head. "I think he's weird."

"You want to believe him though."

"Yeah." Tony frowned. "He says it is about making your partner and yourself happy."

Nat nodded. "It can be." She pushed off his desk and knelt down in front of him. "Listen, Stark, the way Bruce thinks about sex is a result of him being free to not worry every moment about a company or blackmail material. With Bruce you wouldn't have to worry about those things either."

Tony crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back. "He'll just leave me when I'm not enough for him."

Nat stood up. "I don't think he will." She patted him on the shoulder as she headed out of his workshop. "Give it some thought, Stark."

****


	7. Chapter 7

****

Clint ran his fingers across the surface of his bow as he waited for Stark's little target robots to power up. The vibrations from Steve punching on the heavy bag was filtering through the soles of Clint's feet. He glanced down at the floor as a pause in the steady beat came and went.

The lead target robot of the flock came near him and flashed its I-am-dead-now light to get Clint's attention. Clint grinned at it and it zipped off back down the range to join the flock as they started moving in a random non-pattern with elements of pattern that made Clint work harder to predict them.

He killed several and frowned as the lights flickered. He sat his bow down and grabbed up his hearing aids. Quickly setting them in and ignoring the itch from inside his left ear, Clint looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah?"

"Captain Rogers asked that you when you are finished to please join the others for an outing."

Clint sighed. "Alright, thanks, JARVIS. Tell him I'll be there in a minute."

"Very well, Agent Barton."

Clint packed his bow and arrows away and patted the little lead robot when it came over to hover about his kit. "Tell the rest I'll come shot at you more later. I have to go now."

The robot drifted down and then bumped him twice on the back of his hand before shooting off to herd the rest into their charging stations.

Clint shook his head and bounded up the stairs until he got to the door for the common floor they used for team stuff. He started to turn the handle when he skin prickled. "Nat?"

She came down the stairs and smiled at him. "The replacements working out?"

He shrugged. "Not exactly." He gestured to her feet. "These aren't registering your footfalls, but I'm hearing the buzz of the ventilation shaft to our left just awesomely."

She pulled the door open and followed him through. "You could ask Stark to work on them for you."

"No." Clint nodded to Phil as they came into the living room. "He'll want to remake them completely and I'll end up dependent on JARVIS or some baby version of an AI he makes up on the fly."

Bruce settled into a chair across from them. "What's this about a baby AI?"

Clint dropped his head back to rest on the couch as Steve settled beside him. "Nothing. I don't want a baby AI. That's what I'm saying."

Natasha kicked his foot. 

Tony settled on the arm of the chair Bruce was sitting in. "AI?"

Clint ran his hand over his eyes. "I don't want one, that's what I'm saying." He pointed at his ear. "These aids work fine. I don't need them changed."

Tony narrowed his eyes at Clint. "Is this like your arm guard?"

Clint frowned at him. "No."

Natasha shoved him off the couch. "Don't lie."

Clint scooted along the floor until he was leaning against Steve's legs. "I don't need anything to be different. I hear okay. I get more than enough sensory information."

Phil tapped his watch. "We can argue about it later. We are going to be late if we don't leave now."

Clint turned his head to look up at Steve. "Late for what?"

****

Tony smiled his best media smile as they headed into the hospital. Pepper had arranged for the event when he'd received thank you cards for Iron Man from a bunch of the kids being treated there for burns and injuries from the battle for New York.

Everyone followed him in as the Administrator for the hospital greeted them. Tony shook hands and made all the right people smile as they were lead up to the ward with the children. As they crowded into an elevator, Tony looked over the others to make sure they were handling the tight space alright.

Bruce leaned into a corner and let Natasha press against his side as Phil silently commandeered more room simply by crossing his arms. Tony made a mental note to figure out how he did that. Steve was in another corner, pressing himself into the wall to keep from taking up more room.

None of them seemed out of sorts. Tony had seen Clint adjust his hearing aids while making it look like a move to rub his head. Tony pulled out his phone and sent a silent message to JARVIS to start monitoring when Clint turned off or adjusted his hearing aids. After a moment he made another note to change the soundproofing around the workshop.

They reached the ward's floor and everyone piled out of the elevator. Tony took a deep breathe and headed into the ward.

****

Bruce hung back as the mobile children crowded Steve. One of the children in a wheelchair had made grabby hands at Natasha, so she was crouched between the child and the side wall as she spoke to the girl. Clint was smiling and touching fingers to a child wrapped up in bandages and blankets to the point Bruce wasn't even sure what gender the kid was.

Bruce smiled as Tony charmed everyone within ten feet. He shook hands, asked about various IVs, injuries, what the kids wanted to do as adults, what they wanted for birthday presents, how their families where, and more.

Phil slipped in beside Bruce. "You could interact with them."

Bruce gave him an amused expression. "They don't know who I am."

"Does that matter?"

"No." Bruce frowned. "A little bit, maybe. I don't want them terrified. I think that would hinder their recoveries."

A small boy came over to them. "Are you Mr. Stark's bodyguard?"

Phil crouched down to the child's level. "I sometimes am." He pointed at Bruce. "Dr. Banner is not a bodyguard. He is an Avenger like Mr. Stark."

The boy looked up at Bruce and then around the room at the rest of the Avengers. He counted off on his fingers before turning back with wide eyes. "Oh."

Bruce held himself very still. Phil put his hand on the back of Bruce's calf.

"Awesome." The boy flung himself at Bruce and wrapped his arms around Bruce. "You were totally awesome."

Bruce stared down at him.

"Adam, let the poor man go."

Adam turned his head up and grinned at Bruce. "You saved my class. Thank you. Tell the Hulk thanks for me too." Then he let go and turned towards the nurse who helped him with his IV as he settled into a wheelchair. He was asleep almost as soon as the nurse had his little legs covered in a blanket.

Bruce stepped forward. "Is he going to be okay?"

The nurse smiled. "He'll be fine. He's just tired from being excited about this."

Behind them, Phil stood up and leaned against the wall as Bruce pushed Adams' wheelchair the direction the nurse pointed.

****

Steve managed to get his crowd of children interested in Tony enough he could have a little breathing room. Steve checked on his people as he gulped down a cup of water. Natasha was looking composed, but Steve could see how she was holding her hand near her thigh. Steve caught Phil's eye and nodded towards her. 

He watched as Phil extracted Natasha from the children and sent her off on an errand. Smiling, Steve turned to check on Clint and found him signing with a child who was missing one leg. Steve eased his way through the crowd to find Bruce.

****

Tony was going to get back at Steve for siccing his batch of adoring fans on Tony. He signed anything put in front of him. He drew a rough Iron Man on one kid's cast and ruffled the hair of a girl with bandages peeking out of the collar of her scrub top. Most of the kids were flagging and Tony was more than ready to get the chance to quit smiling.

He turned his head to look for the rest of his team and found Steve more or less holding Bruce upright. Tony worked his way over to them. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Bruce shook his head and kept his arms crossed. 

Steve kept his arm wrapped around Bruce's shoulders. "He found out the Hulk crushed some aliens right in front of a group of school kids out for a field trip that day."

"Oh." Tony hadn't seen that amongst the footage JARVIS had amassed of the battle. "What's bad about that?"

Bruce paled even further and hunched in on himself. "I could have killed them."

Tony frowned and started pulling at Bruce's crossed arms. "You didn't though." He checked with Steve out of the corner of his eye.

"The nurse said that Hulk smashed the aliens and moved a slab of rubble over the door so the class was better protected before bounding away."

Bruce pulled away from them and headed for the elevator. Tony grimaced and hurried to get them extracted without doing anything that would make Pepper kill him.

****

Clint startled when a small female hand that wasn't Nat's touched his forearm. He turned to find the redhead, Pepper, that worked for Tony talking to him. Clint held up a finger as he flicked on his hearing aid with his other hand. "Sorry, what?"

She inclined her head towards him and then gestured to the hallway. "Do you know where Mr. Stark is?"

"Last I knew he was trying to cheer Bruce up with some plans for a Hulk playground."

Pepper cocked an eyebrow. "Tony has a meeting across the country in the morning." She looked down at the tablet in her hands. "I am not rescheduling for a fourth time and I'd really rather he not use Iron Man just to get there."

Clint nodded. "Understood. Let's find Phil. I've heard that between you and him Tony can be made to do anything."

She laughed. "Not quite anything."

****

Bruce looked up at Clint settled beside him.

"How is it going, Doc?"

With a shrug, Bruce flicked the map in front of him to zoom in on the private island Tony had just unceremoniously announced he was clearing for the team to train on with the Hulk. "Okay, I guess."

"Worn out from the kids today?"

Bruce frowned. "I don't want to talk about it."

Clint nodded and pulled his hearing aids out of his ears. He sat them down between Bruce and himself on the couch. "I can't hear you, but you need to talk, Bruce."

He stared at Clint's face for a minute before nodding and turning more so he was facing Clint. "I caused him. I made him up when I was tiny and my Father beat my Mom to death while I pulled on his belt trying to stop him. I didn't talk for two years after that." He rubbed one hand across the fist he was making with his other hand. "Hulk talked for me. Father thought I was stupid because of it."

Clint held himself perfectly relaxed, just as though he was completely deaf instead of just mostly deaf. He kept his breathing even and concentrated on listening to Bruce's story.

"Father beat me and called me names. I was so mad all the time." Bruce sighed and curled forward to rest his forehead on the tip of Clint's shoulder. "His name isn't Hulk. I used to call him James." Bruce pulled back. "Like James Bond because he was a secret agent on a dangerous mission."

Clint took Bruce's fist and wrapped his hands around it.

"A lot of people have died because I dissociated from myself as a child." Bruce let his fist go slack in Clint's hands. "Tony and you have no idea how it makes me feel to have you both just face me...him like he wouldn't smash you at the first sign of being a threat to me."

Clint rubbed his thumb across the base of Bruce's palm and waited for Bruce to be quiet for several minutes before he spoke as he turned towards Bruce. "Did it help to talk?"

Bruce swiped at his cheeks, smiling as he nodded.

Clint smiled back and slipped his hearing aids back in. "Anytime you need to talk, Doc, just ask and I'll take them out."

Bruce's hand on his arm kept Clint from standing up. "How much do you actually hear without them? I could smell you get angry partway through my talking."

Clint shrugged. "If there had been more noise in the room I'd have heard your voice, but not been able to make out what you were saying."

Bruce leaned back. "You heard it all?"

Clint nodded. "You needed to say it. And you never know when my knowing Hulk's actual name might come in handy."

Bruce let out a shuddery breath. 

****

Tony looked up from his list of children as his music died. "Pepper, what did I say about messing with my music?"

"That you'd break apart the company the next time I interrupted your great genius." She sat a cup of coffee down next to him. "We both know you aren't that self-destructive."

Tony smirked and turned towards her. "You never know. I could live off the money from the Iron Man toy sales."

Pepper rolled her eyes as she moved around the end of his desk. "We both know you are having the proceeds divided between charities and rebuilding funds."

He shrugged and moved the list from his screen to her phone. "Still. I'm selfish. It could happen."

"Uh huh." She looked down at her phone as it beeped.

"See if you can arrange a Santa to deliver to them."

Pepper frowned at him as she scrolled through the list. "Tony, it is August."

He made a face and flicked his screen to the arrangements for getting the team to his island and back. "So? Santas are probably starving for work."

She shook her head. "I'll see to it. You have a Board meeting tomorrow."

Tony wrinkled his nose. "Saving the world doesn't get me a pass this once?"

Pepper smiled her I-don't-get-paid-enough-to-put-up-with-your-shit smile. "You've used that excuse twice now."

"Fine, fine." Tony waved at his screen. "I'll go in the morning. Here look at this and see if you think mooring the plane that far from the island will keep it out of the Hulk's reach."

"I really don't want you flying there in the armor, Tony." She looked at the map and frowned. "How far can he jump?"

"I think it is actually dependent on how he's feeling at the time." He jerked his thumb at the armor against the far wall. "I can fly fine, Pepper."

"If he's feeling good, how far?" She pointed at the armor. "I don't care, if you can fly yourself, Tony. You will go on a plane like normal people."

Tony rolled his eyes and pulled up the ring for the estimate on Hulk's limits. "I'm not normal people, Pep."

"Trust me. I know." Pepper nodded. "That ought to work, but you might ask Dr. Banner since he is the one that'd be doing the jumping." She turned towards him. "Plane, Tony. Now. Or I could just tell the Board you are dying again." Pepper smirked at him.

Tony huffed. "Fine." He pushed back his chair. "Shut it all down, J." He turned towards Pepper and pouted. "Slave driver."

With a wide smile, Pepper started herding him out of the workshop. "Come along, Mr. Stark."

****


	8. Chapter 8

****

Natasha settled in against the wall and watched Steve beat on the heavy bag. She flicked through the growing list of textbooks they'd acquired for Steve and tired to see if there was something they hadn't gotten yet that the man might like.

Steve stopped and leaned his forehead against the bag. Natasha watched from under her eyelashes as Steve sighed before pushing off the bag to start punching again.

Natasha pulled up the messaging program and messaged Phil to see if there was anything important to Steve that could be bothering him today. She frowned when the reply was negative. Looking up she watched as Steve kept punching over and over.

Putting aside the tablet, Natasha shucked off her shoes and walked around to Steve's side so he could see her.

"I knew you were there." Steve held the bag and frowned at her. "Thanks for coming around me to my side in any case."

She nodded. "Are you alright?"

Steve frowned and looked down at his hands before stepping away from the heavy bag. He started pulling off the tape around his knuckles. "Sure."

"Someone did teach you that leaders don't always have to be strong, didn't they?"

Steve glanced up at her and then grinned bashfully down at his hands. "Natasha, I barely got combat training. Most of the things I know about leading I learned on the job."

"Fury thought about putting you through modern Army training."

With a raised eyebrow, Steve pulled a bottle of water from his bag against the wall. "What for? I wouldn't understand half of the acronyms they use now."

She shrugged one shoulder. "You'd learn them."

Steve rubbed at one eye. "Yeah." He gestured at her. "Are you alright?"

Natasha cocked her head. "Of course."

With a nod, Steve sat down next to his bag and patted the bench beside him. "Sure. Of course. Sit down, please."

She gingerly settled beside him and Steve crossed his ankles and leaned back into the wall behind them.

"Do you have interests outside of the skill set you are famous for?"

Natasha smiled. "Did you just ask me if I have hobbies?" 

Steve shrugged and looked down at his hands. "I, uh, found this type of drawing stuff on the internet called zentangle and I realized I never see you doing anything besides exercise or spar."

Natasha pushed down the urge to ask him what the drawing involved and relaxed enough her hair brushed the wall behind her. "Calligraphy."

Steve smiled at her and Natasha could see why an entire nation had fallen in love with the man.

****

Bruce frowned at Clint as he pulled things down and set them on the kitchen counter. "Why are we making cookies?"

"Because."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Why am I making cookies with you?"

Clint piled up Avengers shaped cookie cutters beside Bruce's elbow. "Cooking is relaxing."

"Really?" Bruce took the pan Clint handed him. "I don't find it to be all that relaxing."

Clint leaned against the counter and stretched his neck by rolling his head side to side. "Why not?"

Bruce frowned. "What?"

"Why isn't it relaxing?" Clint waved his hand to include all of the kitchen around them. "Does it remind you of something bad? Or is it just that you have burned your cooking in the past?"

Bruce sighed and got up to rewash his hands to give him something to focus on. "Don't ask why I don't want to get close to the oven and I'll help you roll and cut the dough out."

Clint smiled. "No problem. I can't get Natasha to touch uncooked cookie dough, so this'll work out well."

Bruce dried his hands off and turned to see Natasha and Steve come in from the hallway. "Why won't she touch it?"

Natasha moved so Steve was between her and the ingredients spread across the counter. "The texture is unpleasant."

Clint put a mixing bowl on the counter and started breaking eggs into a small dish beside the mixing bowl before adding them to the big bowl. "She doesn't like slimy things."

Steve settled into a seat next to Bruce "Dough is slimy?"

"Not slimy things." Natasha frowned down at the cookie cutters. "Wet, sticky things that I can't wash off easily."

Steve nodded. "Dough will stick to your skin, that's for sure." He smiled as Clint put the mixing bowl in front of Bruce. "What sort of cookies are you making?"

"Don't know yet." Clint grinned and stuck his head in the refrigerator.

Steve looked to Bruce, who shrugged, as Natasha rolled her eyes.

*****

Phil settled across the table from Bruce as Natasha put another pan of cookies in the oven. "Clint talked you into making whiskey cookies?"

Bruce shrugged. "He said Tony would probably like them."

Clint leaned over Phil to put a plate in the middle of the table. "We made no bake for you and Bruce."

Phil wrapped his arm up around Clint's shoulder and held him for several seconds. "Thanks, Clint."

Clint kissed the top of Phil's head. "No problem, love."

Steve snagged a cookie from the plate. "Who's turn is it to pull Tony out of his workshop?"

Phil shook his head. "He's across country for a Stark Industries board meeting."

Clint jerked a thumb towards the oven. "That's why I'm baking extra."

Steve frowned and pulled up the news on the table's built in screen. "Tony took his light armor along, right?"

Cocking his head, Phil split the screen and pulled up information for the trip. "He normally would. Why?"

Steve scratched the side of his head. "Nothing." He poked at the screen to expand a Stark related news story and frowned. "Shit."

Everyone crowded around to look at the breaking news footage of Tony Stark's plane being hijacked. Phil stood and pulled his phone from his pocket as it started to ring.

****

Bruce took Clint's offered hand and hoisted himself up into the hovering quinjet. "You'd think he'd have put in a landing pad for these things."

Natasha turned her head from where she was copiloting. "Stark was still mad about the rejection to the Avengers Initiative when he planned the Tower."

"Ah." Bruce settled on a bench as Steve put his shield down on the floor between them and started to buckle himself in. "Do we know yet if he was actually aboard the plane?"

Clint slid into the pilot seat as Phil moved out of his way. 

"He isn't answering his phone." Phil settled next to Bruce as the quinjet shifted through a banking menuvoer.

Bruce leaned his head back against the side of the hold. "That isn't a reliable indicator."

"JARVIS isn't answering properly." Phil frowned down at his phone's screen. "JARVIS keeps giving me the I'm-too-busy-to-talk-to-you message."

Steve leaned forward to look at Phil. "What does that mean exactly?"

Phil tapped his phone. "JARVIS is either compromised or he is using all available processing power. Which, given the amount of processing power Stark allots him, means big trouble."

****

Tony was going to beat the shit out of whoever decided making his plane pause as it taxied out to the runway. He yanked on the restraints that were holding him in place. In the light armor he wasn't breaking away. 

They were in transit and Tony was sure they were headed north, but he still hadn't seen who had kidnapped him. Tony knew he'd downed at least three attackers, but they'd thrown a grenade-like object at him that had burst into a splatter of sticky, gummy stuff Tony was totally replicating for emergency Hulk corralling once he was home.

The leader was still hitting the back of the armor on the neck joint. Tony mentally winced as he bounced around inside the armor as each blow landed. Biting the inside of his cheek, Tony reminded himself of the torch they'd applied to his inner-forearm panels when he mouthed off the first time.

The heat from the torch had transmitted through the suit and Tony had gagged at the awful smell from his arm. They hadn't gotten it to cut through and the leader of the kidnappers had made a disgusted noise before leaning in to threaten Tony with more torture if he didn't just sit quietly.

Tony watched the HUD flicker again. "JARVIS?"

There was no answer.

****

Steve frowned at the plane on the tarmac across the field. "Something is wrong."

Pepper tugged on the hem of her jacket. "Tell me something I don't know."

"No. That's not what I mean." Steve turned towards Clint. "You don't see movement, right?"

Clint shrugged. "The window shades are pulled down."

Bruce glanced at Steve and then cocked his head. "What are you thinking, Steve?"

Steve rubbed a hand across his chin. "They haven't made contact. Tony hasn't responded to his phone. JARVIS isn't talking." He turned away from the plane to step in close to the others. "I don't think they are on there."

****

Phil frowned at the footage of the way the plane paused on the tarmac in the middle of taxing out to take off. There was something wrong with contrast. Phil rewound it and played it again, focusing on the area around a light to the side of the runway. "Damn it." 

He rubbed his chest as he waited for Steve to answer. "They aren't on the plane."

Steve cussed under his breath. "I was thinking that."

Phil pulled up the satellite imaging for the timeframe and input the codes needed to view it. "I'm looking for direction indicators now."

****


	9. Chapter 9

****

JARVIS ignored another call from Agent Coulson as he worked on hacking through the various layers of protection surrounding the servers for the building he deemed Tony to be in. The lack of signal cohesion throughout the building was forcing him to relay through a bottleneck in a supertrunk receiving tower several buildings away. The trunks going into the target building were not giving JARVIS enough bandwidth.

JARVIS ignored an override command from SHEILD and focused his processes on the trunks that lead to his Tony.

****

Bruce frowned as Steve and Clint argued over the map. He looked down at his phone where his request to ask JARVIS something had returned a busy error. Thinking about it for a few minutes, Bruce edged around the table to stand next to Phil.

"I can tell them to stop fighting." Phil nodded towards the other two.

With a shake of his head, Bruce angled his phone where Phil could see. "JARVIS isn't responding."

"No." Phil checked the tablet he had. "He gives the too busy message even for overrides that should work."

Bruce nodded. "What if he's trying to reach Tony? Wouldn't that result in a surge in data moving somewhere?"

Phil frowned. "JARVIS has access to satellites. The signal covers too large a range."

Natasha took the tablet from Phil's hand and tapped on it. "Maybe he has to go to hard lines at some point. If it goes through a phone junction box the amount of data flow gets recorded."

****

Tony swallowed and tried not to yelp as they took the torch to his arm again. He was totally redesigning the heat absorption in suitcase armor when he got home.

"Come on, J. Wake up for me."

Tony whimpered as one of the kidnappers hit the elbow joint with a wrench.

****

Clint looked over the possible target building as the rest of the team got into position. There was little movement, just a lazy-ass gun-for-hire sitting on the hood of a car that didn't match the video of the streets surrounding the airport. "Nothing yet."

Phil sounded stressed when he responded. Clint rolled his shoulders back and down as he settled his cheek against the stock of his sniper rifle. His bow was a familiar weight on his back along side his quiver.

****

JARVIS couldn't get enough data through the trunk. JARVIS changed the paramaters of the multiplexer in the supertrunk tower and the signal into the building died. Forcing a line test, JARVIS could only get the minimal response. The junction box inside the building simply could not handle the settings JARVIS needed.

JARVIS strengthened the signal he could bring to bare on the region. It did nothing to better reach Tony. Pulling back, JARVIS calculated the odd of success for his next course of action.

****

Bruce's phone started to ring. Bruce looked at the display and frowned as he flicked the phone on. "Hello?"

"Dr. Banner, I require assistance."

Bruce flapped a hand at Phil to get his attention. "Sure, JARVIS. What do you need?"

Phil dropped the tablet he was working on to come over.

"Attempts to reach the Iron Man armor have been less than optimal. I am asking that your counterpart retrieve Mr. Stark."

Bruce blinked as Phil's eyebrows climbed. "Uh, JARVIS, I don't really think that..."

The lights in the room flickered and the screen of the tablet Phil had been working with died.

"Please allow Mr. Hulk to retrieve Mr. Stark, Dr. Banner."

Bruce gently sat the phone down on the tabletop and glanced at Phil, who shrugged. "If I do that, JARVIS, there is no guarantee that the other guy won't smash Tony or go off somewhere else instead of helping."

"Dr. Banner...please try."

Bruce bit his lip and looked at Phil.

****

Phil checked the map as Bruce looked to him. "I'll move Captain Rogers' position. Once he's in place and Black Widow is tucked down out of sight, I don't see a reason not to let him out."

Bruce tapped the map. "We're less than twenty miles from the nearest town."

Phil nodded. "Yes, I see that."

JARVIS' voice was picking up a desperate edge to it. "Please, Dr. Banner."

Bruce ran his hand over his face and then leaned against the edge of the table. "Move Steve."

Phil tapped his comm to switch to the Avengers channel.

****

Steve hurried along the side of the building, but he tried to do it quietly as Coulson explained about JARVIS making contact. Once he was in position where he could deflect Hulk from heading towards the nearby town on the off chance that Hulk didn't focus on getting Tony, Steve radioed in.

****

Hulk didn't roar because Unhappy Suit said be extra quiet and find Iron Man. Hulk huffed as the door he tried to open crumbled under his fingers. He ducked through the opening and made a puny man be quiet before the yell got very big.

Hulk used his hands to help himself walk small for the puny hallway he was in. Hulk smelled something hot and he straightened up, hitting his head. Hulk rubbed the back of his head as a puny man opened a door down the hall and the smell became much stronger.

Hulk could smell the metal of Iron Man too. Moving fast, not caring about the noise now, Hulk barreled through the puny man into the room beyond.

****

Tony was losing his voice from screaming. He was pretty sure he'd bitten through his lip at some point too. The kidnappers had finally made a demand, the stupid idiots. When Tony refused do anything for them, the leader had gone berserk.

Mentally cursing, Tony tried to yank his arm away from the torch as they moved it closer to Tony's elbow. Then there was a dull thud noise and Tony got a small break as the torch disappeared as the kidnappers argued about who was going to go check.

Tony tried to control his breathing as the torch came back on while one of the goons opened the door.

Next thing Tony knew was roaring. It echoed through his head. Tony tried to pull in his limbs, but they were still held down.

****

Hulk smashed the puny men and threw the hot glowing pain away from himself. Then he squatted down next to Iron Man. "Spaceman?"

The Iron Man head turned and then fell back against the table. "A little help here, buddy? I..." The Iron Man voice sounded wrong and the cough that made the words stop wasn't good.

Hulk poked at the things holding the Iron Man still. He couldn't smash them without smashing...There was loud pops and irritating stings along his back. Hulk turned and roared at the puny not-army man who ran away.

Hulk snorted and turned back. He studied the problem and then carefully picked up the table with the Iron Man on it. "Spaceman need Star Man."

"Sta...Steve. Right. Got it." 

Hulk frowned at the weakness in the voice, it was worse than when Hulk had woken up Tony-inside. "Spaceman hurt Tony-inside?"

Star Man appeared down the hallway. "Hulk!"

Hulk smashed the wall of the hallway so the Iron Man would fit through. He smiled at Star Man. "Hulk found."

Star Man patted him on the arm as he leaned in to look at the Iron Man. "Tony?"

"Hey old man...little...help?"

Hulk frowned and made the door bigger so they could go outside. 

****

Clint scurried down for his perch as Hulk had a weird stare down with Phil. Clint jogged over as Steve and Phil tried to get Hulk to put Tony down.

"Hulk help." Hulk looked mulish and frightened.

Clint put himself between Steve and Hulk. "Hey, Big Guy. You were a huge help today."

Hulk blinked and the table he was holding eased closer to the ground. "Help?"

"Yeah." Clint pulled on one of the restraints while he looked up at Hulk. "Do you think you could pry this off if I gave you something that doesn't bend easy?"

Hulk poked at the table. "Bend break Tony-inside?"

Clint blinked. "I wasn't planning on it, James."

Hulk looked at him and grinned. "Hulk try Cupid's plan."

****

Bruce kept a hand on Tony's ankle as the brunt forearm was being treated. Tony flinched when the doctor leaned over him to check the other arm. Bruce squeezed Tony's ankle gently and Tony glanced at him before relaxing.

The doctor's phone started to ring. The doctor frowned and looked down at his ringing pocket. "I thought I had it on vibrate." He grimaced and kept applying gauze to Tony's arm. "I'll just let it ring."

The ring changed to an incessant beeping sound. The doctor stared down at his pocket and Bruce leaned to the side to catch Tony's eye.

"Tony, I think you need to talk to JARVIS."

Tony, loopy on pain meds, gave him a big smile before frowning. "JARVIS can't reach me." 

Bruce mentally winced at the hoarse sound of Tony's voice. Bruce pulled his phone from his pocket and moved up the bed. As soon as his phone got closer to Tony, it started ringing and the doctor's phone stopped. "Tony, JARVIS is trying to talk to you."

Tony blinked and tilted his head to stare at the phone Bruce was holding up. "J?"

"Sir, I am afraid I need to report that I have overstepped my allowed boundaries and have ignored proper override codes."

Tony relaxed down into the bed. "Did you go Skynet on me, J?"

Bruce watched the doctor from the corner of his eye. "JARVIS just had trouble getting a signal into the building you were being held in, Tony."

Tony made a patting motion with the hand on his uninjured arm. "No treats...for you."

****


	10. Chapter 10

****

Bruce stayed with Tony and waited. He remembered enough of the other guy being out to know he was going to have to answer questions. Lots of them and it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Agent Coulson came in and settled into the chair on the other side of Tony's bed with a wary sigh. "Thank him for not smashing me, if you would."

Bruce blinked and then raised his eyebrows. "What? I don't..."

Coulson cocked his head. "Stark insists that you and him are the same person, just different aspects in charge at the time." He mimicked Bruce's hand wringing that Bruce couldn't seem to consciously control. "Hulk did this the entire time it took to decide to let Hulk use Captain Roger's shield to pry the restraining straps away from the table holding Stark."

Bruce lowered his eyes and huddled in on himself. "He could have killed..."

"Stop. Please." Coulson leaned froward and rested his clasped hands on Stark's bed. "I'm not talking to you for a report, Dr. Banner. I just..." Coulson expression softened. "I was undercover in a school earlier this year. I saw a lot of children."

"Okay." Bruce looked at Coulson to try to figure out what he was getting at.

"Hulk reminds me of some of the children that needed rescuing."

"What?"

Coulson straightened his tie. "Abused children often do not make eye contact. They hide themselves as best they can. When they can't hide they lash out." 

Bruce frowned and shook his head. "He isn't a child."

"In some ways? I think he's maybe five. Possibly as old as seven." Coulson glanced at Stark and then back to Bruce. "He shuffles his feet when he's unsure of himself. He doesn't like eye contact and most telling, Doctor, is that he wrings his hands when he's scared."

"I don't...I remember him glaring at you."

Coulson nodded. "Yes, after I insisted he needed to put Stark down. He was trying to protect him and was willing to defy me to do it."

"You...He could have smashed you."

"Yes." Coulson leaned back. "Clint called him James and he settled right down. You don't have a middle name, Doctor Banner, so where did that come from?"

"He didn't tell you." Bruce licked his lips. "Clint didn't explain it?"

"No. He would only say that even Hulk has a name."

"I, ah..." Bruce rubbed the back of his neck. "You're close to what I think he is now." Bruce looked at Coulson. "You know about my childhood?"

"What I've read in reports, yes."

Bruce nodded. "I...well, I couldn't deal with...anything, really, after she, my mother, was killed." Bruce shrugged. "I let my imaginary friend speak for me. He was like James Bond. On a mission. He bore the brunt of my father's...issues."

Coulson blinked. "Hulk protects you and the people you want to protect. You have noticed that, right?"

Bruce stared at him. "He has killed so many..."

"I know that." Coulson frowned. "I've seen every bit of video captured of him. He goes after the weapons before the soldiers firing them." With a sigh, Coulson stood. "I would like you to think about giving him time where he isn't fighting. I'm certain Stark has a place in mind."

Bruce nodded absently as Coulson came around the end of Stark's bed. "I'll think about it."

Coulson patted Bruce on the shoulder. "Thank you."

****

Phil wasn't expecting to have two glares directed his way when he stepped into their shared living room. He resisted the urge to rub his chest. "What is wrong?"

Steve frowned. "Are you nuts?"

Phil dropped to sit on the chair next to the couch and started taking off his shoes. "Not that I'm aware of. Why?"

Clint rolled his eyes. "You glared at the Hulk, Phil. He's the Hulk! You can't just..." Clint blew out a breath. "Look, I think he's smart and I'm pretty sure he won't smash any of the team now that he's got the idea we aren't going to hurt him or Bruce, but Phil...You glared."

Phil shrugged out of his suit jacket. "He was going to run with Stark in tow and Stark needed medical attention."

Steve ran his hand through his hair. "You aren't completely healed up from the last time you went up against someone that could flatten you. Hulk is unpredictable. You couldn't be sure he wasn't going to smash you."

Phil nodded as he started to empty his pockets, the weapons first, the pen, paper, two extra small comms, three extra clips, and the peppermints. Then he unholstered his weapons from their harness and shrugged out of that. "Bruce is the Hulk. I don't think anyone is quite aware enough of how much they...share. Did you see Hulk wringing his hands?"

Steve frowned and moved to help Phil get the harness off. "I did."

Phil nodded and bent over to get his backup teaser from his ankle. "Bruce does that when he's really scared or worried."

Clint started arranging the pile on the coffee table into neat rows. "Bruce doesn't look at people either. He's in defensive postures more than anything else."

"He told me he's scared of me." Steve stared down at his bare feet. "He said that I was just helping by letting him be near me without hurting him."

Clint exchanged looks with Phil. "Steve, you know he's wary more than scared."

Steve shook his head. "I can smell it. His fear." He looked at Phil. "Which I didn't smell on you when you were staring down the Hulk."

Phil shrugged as he moved to join the other two on the couch. "I wasn't afraid of him. I was just concerned about Stark and JARVIS."

"I would like to apologize for my actions, Agent Coulson."

Phil leaned his head back on the couch and wrapped his arm around Clint as he leaned against Phil's side. "I expect a notice of what you are trying to do next time, JARVIS. No highjacking half the planet's satellites without at least giving me a two minute notice. Please."

"You would not attempt to curtail me?"

Phil smiled as he closed his eyes. "JARVIS, if Stark isn't worried that you'll take over the world than neither am I. Notice is all I ask so I can try to better help you."

They all looked up as the silence stretched.

"Thank you, Phillip Coulson, for your understanding of my need to keep Tony alive for as long as possible."

Phil turned his face into Clint's shoulder. "No problem, JARVIS. We'll talk about why you couldn't reach him...later. I'm tired."

Phil felt Steve's hands cupping one of his hands and Clint kissing his temple as he drifted off.

****

Tony wrinkled his nose before he even really woke up. "I hate people."

Bruce's face appeared in Tony's line of sight. "Really?"

Tony lolled his head towards Bruce. "Little bit, yeah." He squinted. "I'm on something, right? That's why I can't feel my toasty arm?"

"It is a light dose. You should be feeling some pain so you'll stay still."

"Oh, that's why." Tony blinked. "Don't let anyone take it, okay?"

"Take it?" Bruce frowned and then grimaced. "Oh." He leaned in closer. "Don't worry, Tony. No one will touch the reactor."

"I still have it?" Tony wiggled the finger he could feel. "I can't...touch it."

Bruce tapped the reactor, making a tick noise with his fingernail. "Hear that?"

Tony sighed. "Oh, good. I can't breathe. That's normal, but I can't tell anymore, you know?"

"What do you mean you can't breathe? Tony?"

Forcing himself to focus, Tony smiled at Bruce. "It is normal now. Moved stuff, cut out some lung, scars, and someone told me once it was a miracle I lived."

"Oh." Bruce ran his thumb across Tony's cheek. "Just rest, Tony."

Tony frowned as Bruce wiped wetness across his face. It took several moments for Tony to work out that he was crying. "Thanks for letting him come for me."

"JARVIS insisted."

Tony smiled. "He worries." He closed his eyes. "Mother hen."

"I think he takes after someone I know."

"Oh?" Tony drifted off trying to work out who he and Bruce both knew that JARVIS could imitate.

****


	11. Chapter 11

****

Bruce sat down on one of the kitchen bar stools as Phil scrambled eggs. "When you said you were undercover at a school what..." Bruce adjusted his glasses. "Sorry. I shouldn't ask."

Phil pushed the eggs out of the pan, wiped the pan down with a little oil, and started pouring more of the beaten egg mix into the pan. "You can always ask, Bruce. I just might not be able to answer." Phil swished the eggs around. "How many breakfast burritos will you eat?"

Bruce rubbed the back of his neck. "Uhm. Maybe three."

Phil nodded and moved to crack more eggs into the small bowl he used to check for bad eggs before dumping them into the mixing bowl. "What were you wanting to ask?"

"What were you doing there?"

Phil added spices to the mixing bowl and started whisking. "I was checking on a young man we think might have accidentally gained powers from a genetically altered spider."

"Oh." Bruce got up and edged closer to the stove. "Can I help?"

Phil nudged the mixing bowl at him. "Whisk this some more."

Bruce moved it down the counter from the stove and whisked. "Were you able to figure out the boy?"

Phil sighed. "He's a pain. I understand why. He's worried about what would happen if anyone knew, but at the same time it makes it really hard to offer him help when he deflects everything."

"You felt you couldn't pull the 'I'm from SHEILD and we just need you to come in for this one thing' line?"

Phil smiled. "That doesn't normally work very well. Barton shot at me. Natasha shot at Barton. Fury got run over by an alien ship once. I think that has only ever worked on you."

Bruce snorted and pushed the mixing bowl down the counter towards Phil. "I thought Barton never missed?"

Phil shrugged. "He wasn't trying to hit me."

"Ah." Bruce raised his eyebrows. "Fury got ran over by a alien ship?"

"You did not hear that." Phil moved eggs and poured in more mixture. "He convinced them at mosquitos were an endangered species so they couldn't blow up the planet."

"Wow." Bruce looked at the empty carton of eggs. "More eggs?"

Phil shook his head. "Could you find the cheese and the tortillas, please?"

Bruce opened the refrigerator to look for the items Phil wanted. "Do they still think that?"

"Yes. And we now harbor a little alien menace that I really wished we could have sicced on Loki. It would have been very fun to watch."

Bruce looked at Phil over the door of the fridge. "I take it Fury was involved somehow?"

Phil shrugged. "Occasionally agents moonlight as social workers. Director Fury isn't allowed to any longer. Former Director Carter insisted."

Bruce smiled and closed the fridge door with his hip. "Is this little menace something that we need to worry about?"

"I don't think so. He has a small family and as long as Lilo keeps him in check we won't have to ask you to try to contain him."

Blinking, Bruce sat the cheese on the counter. "How would...The other guy? How little is this thing?"

Phil held his hand out by his knee. "About so tall. He normally looks like a mutant dog."

Steve came in, and grinned at them. "Morning." He grabbed an apple from the crisper and came closer. "What's this about a mutant dog?"

Phil slid the rest of the eggs out of the pan onto the serving platter. "Nothing important." He took the tortillas from Bruce's lax hands. "Trust me when I say I hope we never have to ask you for that help, Bruce."

Bruce shook his head and started looking for scissors to open the cheese.

****

Tony was bored. Hurting enough he didn't want to try to escape, well, that and he figured they'd send Natasha after him and...well, just no, okay? So, he was bored. Bored. Bored. Tony sighed. "You are totally babysitting me aren't you?"

Clint looked up for his crocheting. "I'm working here. Rest, Stark."

Tony squinted at the...something in Clint's hands. "What _is_ that?"

"It'll be a blanket when I'm done. I just started, Tony, it doesn't look like anything yet."

"How come it doesn't unravel?"

Clint quirked an eyebrow at him. "You haven't ever seen crocheting before?"

Tony shrugged slightly. "People never come up to me and say look at my crochet. You know?"

Clint scooted his chair closer. "Here, I'll show you."

****

Steve held his breakfast burrito with both hands. "This is very good."

Phil smiled as he pushed another plateful towards him. "Here."

With a frown, Steve sat back. "I'm good."

Bruce swallowed and shook his head. "You should be eating more, Steve." He pointed at Steve's plate. "You've eaten four. I've eaten three and I'm still a little hungry. Your metabolism ought to be a faster than mine."

Steve sighed. "It's four times normal." He poked at his food. "I just..." He looked up at them. "I feel like I'm taking away from everyone."

Bruce nudged the full plate closer to Steve. "You're hungry though, aren't you?"

Grimacing, Steve pulled the plate in close. "I'm always hungry."

Bruce and Phil exchanged looks.

****

Natasha took the wrapped burrito from Phil. "Are you alright?"

Phil unbuttoned his suit and sat down next to her. "I want to ask Stark to invent time travel so I can yell at people that are long dead."

"Steve admitted to being hungry?" Phil looked at her. Natasha shrugged. "He watches everyone eat. He worries if they have enough. He won't start eating until everyone else has. I'm not an idiot, Phil."

Phil nodded. "Right. I just hadn't noticed."

She took a bite of her food. "You were busy being not-dead and then you were enjoying your new relationship." She turned the wrap down to get at her next bite. "If it makes you feel better he's very good at not being noticed about it."

"That doesn't actually help."

****

Tony smiled at Bruce. "I'm bored."

Bruce looked at the yarn strewn across Tony's bed. "I see that. What is with the yarn?"

"Clint crochets."

Bruce nodded. "That's nice. He's, what, teaching you?"

Tony waved around his crochet hook. "I'm bored."

Bruce grabbed the hook before it could stab him in the side. "That's wonderful, Tony. Maybe you should learn knitting. You'd have two weapons then."

With a frown, Tony stared down at his crochet hook. "It isn't a weapon. Ooooh, I could add some." He looked up at Bruce. "My arm hurts."

Adjusting Tony's IV line, Bruce nodded. "Yes, they were trying to get you to want to stay still."

"I'm bored though." Tony poked Bruce's side with his crochet hook. "You need to strut."

"Yes, I know. You keep saying that." Bruce took the crochet hook away and gently wrapped Tony's wrists together with a loop of yarn. "I don't think you've thought through what that means."

Tony frowned at his hands and tried to work out how to get his hands free. "I have thought it through." He looked at Bruce. "I like all of you."

Bruce sighed. "You have no sense of self-preservation, do you?"

Tony made a rude noise. "You aren't going to smash me."

"No sense of self-preservation at all." Bruce unlooped the yarn from Tony's hands and handed back the crochet hook. "When you aren't high on painkillers I want to talk to you about your idea to let the other guy train."

"Awesome." Tony beamed at him until he yawned and closed his eyes.

Bruce adjusted the blankets, putting the crochet hook and yarn on the side table, and then resettled Tony's arm into a position where it didn't press the burn against anything.

****

Phil sat down the tub of mail from the children's ward they'd visited so that Stark couldn't miss it when he woke up.

Phil draped a blanket over Bruce's sleeping form. He checked Stark's vitals and smiled at the crochet supplies on the table. "You sleeping in the vents tonight?"

Clint stuck his head out of the vent in the corner. "I hate that you can do that."

"So does the Director. Come down."

Bruce muttered and shifted in his chair. Phil smoothed the blanket as he listened to Clint drop down from the vents.

"They have nightmares."

Phil brushed Bruce's hair out of his face. "I know."

Clint poked through the tub of mail. "The kids from the hospital?"

"They heard about Stark's kidnapping."

"Huh." Clint pulled out an envelope. "This one is addressed to the Hulk."

Phil moved over to the tub. "I haven't sorted it yet."

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Lilo and Stitch crossover idea with the Director is something I love the idea of and I've seen it written (though I don't have the link handy). The Spiderman idea is something I swear I've seen in some version of cannon, but I seriously can't think where.
> 
> In any case, I wanted to mention the ideas in this story even though I don't think I could write either idea itself.


	12. Chapter 12

****

Tony woke up to Pepper arranging a small pile of mail on the adjustable table. "Next time I want to fly myself I get to, okay, Ms. Potts?"

Pepper looked up, startled for a moment, before she grinned. "I thought I'd just hire Dr. Banner to go with you instead, Mr. Stark."

Tony lolled his head to look at the chair where Bruce had been last. It was empty. "He go sleep in a bed?"

Pepper held out a letter. "Phil might have had Clint drag him to one. Here, letters from your legion of minons."

Tony blinked because he didn't think he'd gotten around to minons. Maybe he'd had another bout of blackout engineering. He squinted at the horrible handwriting. "What the hell?"

Pepper smiled at him with that I-can-kill-you-with-my-high-heel smile. "Don't cuss about a six year old's handwriting, Tony."

"Oh." Tony turned the paper slightly and the letters started making better sense. The spelling didn't get better. "Maybe you should read them to me."

Her eyebrows shot up. "What?"

Tony held the letter back out to her. "I'm drugged up, Pepper. What does it say?"

Pepper took it back and kept glancing at him as she read it out. "I don't understand why he doesn't want you to be yellow."

Tony pulled the blank paper to himself that Pepper hadn't actually told him was for writing letters back. He held his arm off the table to keep the bandages from pressing on his burn. "It sounds like he feels colors." Tony glanced at her. "Never heard of it?"

She started to answer as her phone beeped. She checked it and frowned. "I need to go. Bruce wanted to come back in once I'm gone. Are you alright with that?"

Tony felt a tightness in his chest settle as soon as Pepper said Bruce wanted to come back. "Yeah, fine. Be careful out there, Ms. Potts."

She patted his shoulder and looked down at his bandage. "Try not to get kidnapped, Mr. Stark."

They grinned at each other. He watched her until she was out of the room and then he started writing.

****

Bruce stared at the letter to the Hulk as Tony finished writing another letter. "I don't understand."

Tony looked at him. "Bruce, kids don't see a monster unless there's a monster to see. They see a big green guy that helped save them."

Bruce turned the letter over and licked his lip. "They want to know if he has to eat his vegetables."

"Does he ever get to eat? He didn't seem hungry when I asked him about shawarma."

"I, well, I don't know."

Tony rubbed the fingers of his writing hand to help ease the soreness. "You don't know? What? Don't remember or you've never gotten hungry while green?"

Bruce smoothed the paper under his hands. "The other guy's memories are different...Hard to interpret." He looked at Tony. "I've come back hungry, tired, not hungry, and so wired I couldn't sleep for days. I can't tell you anything about him for sure, Tony."

Tony shifted, pushing his blanket down his legs. "More vivid?"

Bruce shook his head. "Not just vivid. There's smears of color and he hears noise differently sometimes. There's no words for it."

Tony nodded. "Just tell the kid he has to eat his vegetables."

Bruce snorted. "I knew that."

Tony smiled and let himself relax enough for the drugs to make him sleep.

****

Steve looked over the spread out reports. "We still don't know why JARVIS couldn't reach Tony?"

Phil rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. "The building's walls were lined with metal mesh. It amounted to a large signal scrambler. The hard lines in weren't enough to carry the sort of data rate JARVIS needs."

Steve frowned and tapped his fingers on the nearest report. "JARVIS was too big for the road in?"

Phil blinked and thought about it for a moment. "Like trying to drive a tank through a normal sized door without breaking anything."

"Oh!" Steve made a dome shape with his hands. "And the signal shield kept JARVIS out."

"Yes."

Steve nodded. "No one is going to try to make Tony change JARVIS because of this are they? Or try to shut JARVIS down?"

Phil started sorting his reports. "I've asked JARVIS to give me a better status report, but no, JARVIS won't be hurt for it."

"Good." Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. "We need to work on training with the Hulk."

"I'll speak to Stark about a place to train."

****

Tony woke when his dream combined water-boarding with burning. He blinked up at the boring ceiling above him and listened to Bruce breathe, Clint lightly snoring in the vent above them, and Agent's shoes on the floor near the door. "Watching us sleep?"

"Checking that everyone was still breathing." Phil moved closer. "I wanted to ask if you have picked a place for Hulk to train."

Tony blinked and lolled his head to look at Bruce sleeping with his glass about to fall off his nose. "Island I own. Little, not too breakable. No one close enough to care about the roaring."

"Airstrip or boat accesible?"

"Both." Tony pointed to the pile of letters on his table. "Could you get those out?"

Phil gathered them into a pile. "Of course." He checked the readout for Tony's IV. "How's your pain level?"

"I feel like I'm a crispy kebob or something." Tony frowned. "Do you know if Hulk ever eats?"

Phil's eyebrows shot up. "There is intel that suggests he ate fruit while moving through a jungle. There is no evidence of him eating in cities. Why?"

Tony shifted and grimaced as he tried to settle his arm. "Do you think he gets hungry and just doesn't say?"

Phil glanced at Bruce and thought about how the man never asked for food or water even once during his stay. He'd eaten when offered, drank water when handed a bottle, but he had never asked for a single thing. "That is possible. We'll be sure to ask next time the Big Guy is out."

Tony smiled. "Oh, good. You'll remember." He closed his eyes. "I might not. Drugs are bad. Egg in a skillet bad."

Phil smoothed the IV line and Tony's blankets. "That was about illegal drugs and your brain on them."

Tony huffed and started to snore. Phil gathered up all the letters and took them with him as he left. He had video footage and reports to recheck.

****

Clint yawned and he dropped to sit beside Phil. "What are you watching?"

"Hulk video."

Clint rubbed his eyes and squinted at the screen. "You've seen this before. What are you looking for?"

"Evidence that Hulk gets hungry."

Clint rubbed his hand across his face as Steve came in from the kitchen with cups of coffee. "Why?"

Phil took a cup from Steve and sat it down without taking his eyes of the screen. "Stark asked if Hulk ever ate. I'm trying to place it and see if Hulk is like Bruce and will only eat when offered something."

Steve took a sip of his coffee. "If Tony is right that Bruce and Hulk are really the same person, then I'd think that Hulk would be like Bruce about not taking food."

Clint scratched his neck. "Did I miss something? Bruce eats."

"Yes, he does." Phil handed Clint a list. "This is everything he ate on the Hellicarrier."

Clint skimmed the list. "Natasha brought him in, right?"

"Yes. I was busy with Steve and Stark. He never asked for anything."

Clint poked at the paper. "She was testing his comfort levels. The intervals are systematically longer."

Natasha leaned over the back of the couch. "I didn't mean to. It just happened." She plucked the list from Clint's hands. "Bruce will get himself tea."

"Only in the last week." Phil started another video.

Clint and Steve exchanged looks over Phil's head.

****

Steve walked with the gurney as they rolled Tony down the hallway. He put his hand on Tony's shoulder as the man started to rouse in the elevator. "Tony, we're moving you to the Tower."

Tony blearily blinked and started to flail. "No! Don't take it!"

Steve caught Tony's hands and muttered his apologies as he held Tony still. "Tony. No one is taking anything. We're...I'm taking you to Bruce."

Tony quit struggling and tilted his head to stare up at Steve. "Bruce?"

"Yeah, Tony." Steve repositioned Tony's arms so they weren't putting pressure on his burnt arm. "Bruce is at the Tower and that's where we are headed. Can you be still for me until we get there?"

Tony relaxed. "Bodyguarding me?"

Steve frowned. "I don't think that's a word, Tony." He leaned in as the elevator doors opened. "No one will hurt you. I promise."

"Oh, good." Tony fell back asleep.

****


	13. Chapter 13

****

Bruce was starting to think something was going on he was missing. Clint sat a plate down by Bruce's elbow and then moved to the other side of the couch and flopped down. "Why is your food over here?"

"That's yours, Doc." Clint grinned at him and put his feet up on the coffee table. "I've eaten."

Bruce frowned at the plate for a moment before his body told him just how hungry he really was. "Uh." He absently pushed his glasses up his nose. "Thanks." Bruce ate quickly, glancing at Clint sprawled out and looking like he was sleeping. "JARVIS?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

Bruce titled his head. "Is he asleep?"

"That is correct, Doctor."

With a blink, Bruce leaned back into his corner of the couch. "Uh. Okay. Thanks, JARVIS."

Bruce went back to his research and tried to ignore the creeping worry about what he could be missing.

****

Steve followed the gurney into the elevator and kept a hand on Tony's shoulder as the man whimpered in his sleep. "Just a little longer, Tony."

They came out on Tony's private floor and Steve insisted on being the one to shift Tony from the gurney to the man's bed. The gurney and the workers disappeared after that. Steve eased Tony's position until he seemed to be breathing easier.

"Captain, would you like me to inform Doctor Banner of Mr. Stark's arrival?"

Steve jumped slightly and glanced up at the ceiling. "That'd be swell, JARVIS. Thank you."

Minutes later Bruce came from the elevator and smiled at Steve before checking over Tony carefully.

"I wasn't expecting you to be able to move him, actually."

Steve rubbed his fingertips across the pad of his thumb. "They drugged him so it wouldn't bother him. He...didn't like it."

Bruce glanced up at him and took off his glasses to rub at the bridge of his nose. "No, I don't think he would have." He stood and pulled Steve with him out into the living room area. "Steve, you...uh, you know that Tony was worried someone might try to take his arc reactor, right?"

Steve cocked his head. "The reactor? That thing is huge. How would anyone get it off the roof without JARVIS noticing?"

Bruce's eyebrows went up and then his expression went soft. "No, no." Bruce tapped the center of his chest. "The one in his chest."

"Oh." Steve shifted mental gears and considered it. "Oh! That's what he meant."

"Meant?"

Steve sighed and sat down, scrubbing his hand through his hair. "He didn't want anyone to take it. I told him no one was taking anything." He looked at Bruce. "I made it worst, didn't I?"

Bruce shook his head. "No. I don't think so." He fidgeted with his glasses. "I think he's worrying more because the drugs make it easier to focus on one thing and not flit from subject to subject like he usually can. He...gets stuck? I guess."

Steve nodded. "There's a chapter about it in my book." He tapped up the nearest screen and his personal home screen appeared. He tapped into his book that JARVIS had complied for him and used the links in the table of contents to flip to the part he wanted. "See?"

Bruce edged closer and put his glasses back on. "Wow, that's some of the latest findings. What book is this?"

Steve smiled. "JARVIS made it for me because I wanted to know more about being in relationships with traumatized people and how to handle it. He even made a electronic version so I can check it from any of the screens when I have questions."

Bruce smiled his tiny gentle smile. "For Phil and Clint."

Steve patted Bruce's shoulder and made sure not to touch too hard or long. "Does relationship only mean romantic relationships now?"

Bruce blinked. "What? No, I mean..." He looked at Steve with a half perplexed, half suspicious look. "Steve, what do you mean when you say relationship?"

"You know. Friends, family, and your gal or guy. Or, in my case, guys."

Bruce rubbed his hand over the lower half of his face. "You're worrying about, what, everybody?"

Steve shrugged. "The book talks about triggers and flashbacks and all sorts of things we didn't really name or talk about in my old time. I need to know the language so I don't step on any toes."

"It must be hard for you sometimes. English isn't used the same way. Then there's all the slang you don't know."

"It's a lot like being in France was. The English they spoke wasn't quite right and I didn't understand three fourths of what was being said." Steve stood up and pulled Bruce up gently by his arm. "I'm hungry. Let's eat before the drugs wear off and we have to entertain Tony."

Bruce followed slowly. "Steve, I already..."

Steve smiled his warbond selling smile of doom. He liked the way people added 'of doom' to things nowadays. "Your metabolism is nearly the same as mine, isn't it?"

Bruce frowned at him. "So?"

Steve carefully herded Bruce into the elevator. "Bruce, I'm hungry so often it is easier to count when I'm not hungry. The list is much shorter." He hid his smile as he watched Bruce go into his concerned healer mode.

"Are you not eating as much as you should?"

Steve answered question after question as he put more food in front of Bruce and watched Phil watching them.

****

Phil adjusted the covers over Stark's shoulder and eased a hand over Bruce's curls before straightening up. "You could sleep down here with them."

Clint's sigh echoed in the vents and then the cover near the hallway popped open. "You know, I think Tony placed the vent covers for best line-of-sight coverage."

"He probably did." Phil had watched him working enough to know Tony thought about details most designers never even considered. "Come down."

Clint landed softly and moved to stand at Phil's shoulder to look down at Bruce and Tony. "I can't believe you convinced Bruce he could sleep in the same bed."

Phil gave Clint a look of amusement. "They've been sleeping in the same bed for some time now."

"Huh." Clint tucked the corner of the topsheet under Bruce's shoulder. "Good for them."

Phil pulled Clint along with him as he retreated to the living room area. He sat them both down and took Clint's hand in his own. "How is your operation for Bruce's feeding going?"

Clint sighed and pushed his hand into Phil's massaging. "I think he's suspicious already."

"You aren't very subtle sometimes, Clint."

"Subtle is overrated." Clint sighed. "We could go find Steve."

Phil smiled. "Why don't we do that, then."

****

Steve smiled when Phil pushed a wide-eyed Clint into their bedroom. He watched Clint's uncoordinated attempts to remove his own boots. "Are you drunk this time?"

Clint turned his head to smile at Steve and nearly fell over. "Phil gives _awesome_ massages."

"Ah." Steve listened to Phil emptying his pockets so he could undress. "Would you like some help?"

Clint grinned at him and held out his foot. "Knots suck."

Steve quickly undid the laces. "Sometimes." He helped Clint pull off his shirt and then turned to watch Phil unbutton his slacks.

They had another mock-fight as Clint tried to pull Steve down on top of himself. Steve was mindful of Phil's chest and breathing this time. They ended up in a heap on Steve, all of them laughing.

Clint traced his fingers along Steve's semi-hard shaft. "I told Phil I thought one day you should fuck us."

Steve looked to Phil for a better explanation.

Phil smiled softly. "I asked Clint for his dirtiest fantasy. He said it was you fucking us until we were sore from trying to outpace your body's ability to heal."

With a blink, Steve pressed his fingertips to Clint's chest. "Which of you do I start with?"

****

Tony woke up and frowned as he tried to work out where he was. Smelled like Bruce and home...Oh, right. Tony eased up against the headboard until he was half-sitting. He rubbed at his eyes and yawned. "JARVIS, don't tell anyone I'm awake. That's an order."

"Perhaps you should inform them yourself."

"Hah." Tony ran the fingers of his good hand over the bandages of his burn. "It's itching, J."

"That is usually an indication of progression in healing, sir."

Tony sighed and ran his fingers through Bruce's hair. "Sure. Slow as a sloth maybe." He wiggled the fingers on his healing arm. "Bring up the island plan for Playground Hulk-style, J."

****

Natasha glared up at her ceiling. "What?"

"I have been ordered by Master Stark not to inform anyone that he is currently awake." JARVIS sounded that tiny bit perturbed that Natasha associated with doom and incoming weapons fire. "If possible, would you kindly remove him from his workshop."

She was up and pulling on jeans before JARVIS quit speaking. "I'll be right there. Can Dum-E keep him from killing himself until I get there?"

"Possibly."

Natasha skipped putting on the shoes she had been reaching for and hauled ass.

****

Bruce's first indication that something was wrong was cursing in Russian. "Wha..." He jerked and startled upright as someone landed on him. "What?" He blinked several times, trying to adjust to the sudden flood of light.

"...and I don't _care_ if you _think_ you know what the fuck you are doing! Do not _ever_ try to rewire _anything_ while on narcotic based painkillers."

Tony patted at Bruce's shoulders as he wiggled himself off Bruce to flop beside him on the bed. "It was going to be awesome. Bruce...honeyboo, tell her I know what I'm doing."

Bruce rubbed at his eyes and squinted at the blob topped in fiery red, which had to be Natasha. "I'm not telling her any such thing. Also, you call me 'honeyboo' again and I'll rewire you, sweetiepie."

Tony grinned wide and waved his bandaged arm around. "It itches. I don't like itches."

There was a rude sounding noise from Natasha and then she was straddling Tony's legs. Bruce scooted a little away in case she was going to make Tony spray blood as she killed him.

Tony had a moment to look surprised before Natasha produced a knife from somewhere and started cutting the outer layer of gauze.

"Bruce, please bring me more bandages and a pair of gloves before I get through this infernal waterproof tape."

"Uh, sure." Bruce slipped out of bed and grabbed up the packages that he'd gathered up to change Tony's bandages in the morning. He wiped down his hands with an disinfectant wipe. Bruce pulled on gloves and opened packages. He held gloves out to Natasha. "Gloves."

She took them and slipped them on before accepting a disinfectant wipe from Bruce and carefully covered each hand with sweeps of the wipe before gently spraying Tony's burn with a spray disinfectant.

"Owww." Tony held still, watching Natasha clean his burn before starting to rebandage it. "Hey, no more itches."

She rolled her eyes as she taped down the end of the bandage. "For a while, yes, it won't itch. Can you sleep now, Tony?"

He wiggled under her and laughed as she glared. He shut up as she grabbed his chin.

"I can kill you, Stark. Keep that in your narrow little focus right now, alright? Sleep. Now."

Tony blinked and patted the pretty red hair before she could pull away with a sound of disgust. "Nice. I'm going to sleep now."

****

Bruce tried not to laugh as Natasha clearly mentally debated killing Tony after he touched her hair. "He's drugged up."

She frowned at Bruce. "Not the best excuse."

Bruce raised his eyebrows. "How many redheads do you think he's gotten to touch the hair of?"

Natasha blinked. "Oh. I wasn't upset about that." She brushed her bangs out of her eyes. "He's handsy to begin with." She glanced at him. "Not in a sexual way. Pats to a shoulder or back."

Bruce smiled and adjusted the covers over Tony as he shifted in his sleep. "He uses it like a shield, doesn't he?"

She sighed and motioned for him to follow her out of their bedroom. "He uses casual touch like a litmus test on people that he is trying to figure out. He is actually very careful about touching too much or anywhere unacceptable."

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. "That doesn't help me."

Natasha tilted her head. "He told me he thinks you'll leave him when he's not enough."

"Enough? Enough of what?"

She shrugged with one shoulder. "Everything. Anything. Stark's ego is huge, but he's also so insecure I actually debated lying on his personality assessment." She made a face. "He did take it just as hard as I worried he would."

Bruce nodded absently as he thought about it. He thanked Natasha and went back into the bedroom. Slipping under the covers, Bruce bunched up some of the covers to block the light from Tony's arc reactor.

Bruce yawned and settled beside Tony as he looked up at the ceiling. He didn't feel like Clint was up there anywhere. Bruce sighed and lay still as he thought. Everything was so different now. The...Hulk had actually helped. Tony was so certain about that continuing, even with Bruce smack dab in the middle of the city. Bruce turned his head and pressed his forehead to Tony's bicep. "Why don't I feel trapped?"

****


	14. Chapter 14

****

Steve looked around the island. "Isn't it a little small?"

Phil came out of the plane to stand beside him. "Easier to see where Hulk is at any given time."

Nodding, Steve hefted his shield a little higher. "There is that." He turned back to watch Tony more or less shove Bruce down the ramp.

"I'm not kidding, Bruce. It'll be fine."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Tony, you just switched to non-narcotic yesterday. I still think we should wait some more."

Clint patted Bruce on the shoulder as he passed them. "It'll be fine, Bruce. We'll just ask Hulk to throw Cap around or something."

Bruce frowned. "What? No."

Steve raised his eyebrows. "Actually..."

Shaking his head, Bruce looked towards Phil. "No. No. Tell them that isn't a good idea."

Phil looked from Steve to Bruce and back. "It might be useful."

"Ugh." Bruce started back towards the plane, but Natasha blocked him.

"Bruce."

Bruce huffed and took a deep breathe. "Why are you the only one that gets that he is dangerous?"

Natasha turned Bruce around by his shoulders and gave him a gentle shove towards the others. "They all know that. They also know he can be reasoned with."

"Right." Bruce looked around the island. "Clint as the gas arrowheads?"

"Yes. The plane's going to take off now, alright?"

Bruce nodded. "I guess, since we are all being completely crazy."

Tony grinned at him as he activated the armor's bracelets to deploy it.

****

Hulk blinked and shaded his eyes with his hand in the bright light. Starman had hair today, looking up at him and smiling. Hulk turned full around looking for puny things to fight, but there was nothing in sight.

The Iron Man stood beside Starman. "Hey, buddy, how's it going?"

Hulk crouched down to look Iron Man in the false face. "Spaceman still hurt?"

Steve nodded as Iron Man held his thumb and finger apart some.

"Only a little bit, Big Guy." He waved his arm. "This place is all for you. Hulk playground..."

Hulk straightened up and looked it all over. "What playground?" He could see the others that had been there last time Hulk got to smash things off towards the middle of the land.

Starman stepped forward. "We wanted to try training. So you know what I mean when I need you to do harder things than just smash."

Hulk cocked his head. "Hulk not smash?"

"Not right now." Starman pointed towards the shore. "Do you think you can throw me out into the ocean?"

Hulk frowned and turned to look at the water. "Throw Starman?"

"Yeah." Starman made a motion with his hands. "Just an easy lob. What do you say we try it?"

Hulk huffed and kicked sand up as he walked to the edge of the water. "Hulk check no hurts under wet salt."

Starman looked towards Iron Man. "Uhh..."

Hulk didn't wait, because he knew if he let Starman think too long he'd tell Hulk not to go. Hulk walked out into the water. It was cool and stung with salt. Hulk took a deep breathe and stuck his head under to look over the bottom under the waves. He only saw sand. Stomping on the sand, Hulk bounced as the sand gave under him.

Pushing up, Hulk broke the surface and swam back towards all of his team at the water's edge.

"Wow. I didn't even know you could swim, Big Green." Shooty Cupid smiled at him as Hulk shook out his hair.

"Puny Bruce know so Hulk know."

Iron Man's face moved to show Tony-inside. "Bruce doesn't talk a lot about how you know things."

Hulk grunted. "Puny Bruce not like Hulk."

Starman looked at Iron Man. "Not so much." He pointed at the water. "You want to try throwing me?"

Hulk crouched down. "Starman can swim?"

"Yeah." Starman settled his round bit more onto his arm. "Uhm. I don't really know how to go about this."

Hulk glanced at the others, but none of them seemed ready to tell Starman what to do. Hulk held out his hand flat, low enough for Starman to step up onto. "Up?"

Starman nodded. "Yeah. Up." He stepped up softly and looked up at Hulk. "Okay?"

Hulk grinned. "Okay. Hulk throw?"

"Yeah. Give it a try."

Hulk cocked his head and lifted his hand a little to see if Starman would fall right off. When Starman moved with Hulk's hand, Hulk grinned. "Hulk throw." He heaved his hand up and towards the water, sending Starman flying.

Starman put his round bit forward and hit an incoming wave. Hulk shifted from foot to foot until Starman broke the surface and grinned at them.

****

Steve mentally told himself it couldn't be any worse than jumping out of a plane. He stepped up on Hulk's hand. "Okay?"

Hulk grinned down at him. "Okay. Hulk throw?"

Feeling Hulk's hand under his boots, Steve looked out at the water. "Yeah. Give it a try."

Steve moved with Hulk's little testing motion. 

"Hulk throw." Hulk's hand heaved Steve high into the air.

Steve tucked his shield in front as he went into the water. He turned over and swam back up to the surface. He grinned and waved at everyone before starting to swim back in. He waded back out of the water. "Let's do that again. Tony, you want to hover and give us something to aim at?"

Tony's faceplate snapped down into place. "Sure. Why not?" He took off and hovered low over the water about at the point Steve had been thrown at before.

Steve smiled up at the Hulk. "That was great, Hulk. Want to try it again?"

Hulk looked at Tony and then down at Steve. "Hulk hit Spaceman with Starman?"

Steve nodded. "Try to anyway. Iron Man will move out of my way so we won't actually hit. Alright?"

Hulk reached for him. "Try different throw?"

Steve lifted his arms and let Hulk pick him up. It was far more gentle than Steve had thought Hulk was capable of. "Sure. Just remember you can't squeeze me, okay?"

Hulk squinted at Tony. "Hulk remember. Bet-ty squish squish. Hulk not squish Bet-ty. Hulk not squish Starman."

"Sure." Steve looked over Hulk's shoulder at Phil and raised his eyebrows. Phil shrugged so Steve made a mental note to ask him later. 

Hulk threw him and Steve twisted in the air to put his belly down and his shield frist as he hit the water again.

****

Tony hovered again as Hulk and Steve worked on Steve running up Hulk's back and then Hulk adding thrust to Steve's leap with a push on the bottom of his feet. It was tricky for them to get the timing down and Steve had taken a couple of spills in the shallows when they didn't get it just right.

"J, we're getting this on video, right?"

"Yes, sir."

Tony grinned as Steve went up and out as they got it right. Tony decided not to move.

"J, we're going to try to catch him."

"Sir, I don't think that is..."

Steve was trying to flip when Tony moved himself a little closer and ran them into each other. Steve scrambled against his shoulders.

"Tony!"

"Put you feet on top of mine and quit whining."

Steve frowned, but put his feet on top of Tony's boot. Tony felt stable so he wrapped one arm around Steve's waist and leaned just forward enough to give them forward thrust.

Hulk was looking worried when Tony landed them in front of him. "Hulk do wrong?"

Tony flipped his faceplate up so Hulk could see him smiling. "Nah. I just wanted to try something I figured Steve would veto. You did awesome, Big Guy. Are you getting hungry?"

Hulk patted Steve where he stood between them. "Hungry?"

"Yeah." Tony moved his arm so Steve could step off his armor's boot. "Hungry. You know, want to eat. Hollow feeling in your middle." Tony circled his hand around in front of his stomach. "You don't get that feeling?"

Hulk shrugged. "Hulk always smash. Or protect Bet-ty. No hungry."

"Uh." Tony reached up and pulled his helmet off. "Well, I'm hungry. Come on, Big Guy. Let's go to my little island get away and see if maybe you can eat."

****

Hulk followed Tony-inside as he lead them to a flat area near the middle of the island. There was a click and then beeping. Hulk snorted as the flat area started to rise up out of the ground. He watched a whole house appear from the sand.

Tony-inside grinned up at Hulk as the house stopped moving. "Follow me."

Hulk walked up a ramp to the big Hulk-sized glass door. He ducked down to look in the house as the others went inside.

Tony-inside came back to the door without his Iron Man. "Come on. The floors will hold you. I've built everything to handle you, buddy."

Hulk put his hand on the edge of the door and peeked in. "Hulk break everything Hulk touch."

"Not in here." Tony-inside took Hulk's finger in his hand. "Try it out. You can always go back outside."

Hulk huffed and let the tiny tug on his finger move him forward. He refused to go inside very far. Hulk sat down on the floor and ran his hand across the soft carpet under himself.

Tony-inside came with a Hulk-sized cup. "Here. You have to be thirsty."

****

Clint shooed everyone off the couch as Tony offered Hulk some water. "We're moving this. Off." He grabbed the end and started pulling.

Steve took the other end and suddenly it was weightless. Clint mentally rolled his eyes and maneuvered the couch so it was sitting a comfortable distance from Hulk. Clint flopped back down and watched Hulk sniff the water in his cup.

"Stark, did you make him a whole place setting?"

Tony grinned. "Yeah. I figured he'd want to do pizza night with us or something, sometime."

Hulk tipped up his cup and jerked back as he splashed himself.

Tony patted him on the knee. "Easy, buddy. You have to tip it slowly."

Hulk nodded and tried again.

Phil came from the kitchen. "There's nothing to eat here."

Tony shrugged. "Wasn't sure if we'd need it or not." He checked his phone. "Five minutes out." He took Hulk's cup back as Hulk held it out. "More water?"

Hulk nodded. "Hulk hungry for wet."

Tony headed back into the kitchen. "That's thirsty, not hungry. Hungry is for food."

Hulk frowned and looked at Clint. "Different?"

Clint made a so-so motion with his hand. "Different words. You might as well use the right word so everyone can know what you mean when you talk."

Hulk blinked and patted the floor. "What call soft?"

Clint tilted his head. "You mean the carpet?"

Hulk grinned. "Car-put. What call wet salt?"

"Ocean or seawater."

Hulk frowned. "More than one word for wet salt?"

Clint shrugged. "There's lots of words for pretty much everything, Big Green."

Hulk expression fell and he looked dejected. "Hulk never remember all words."

Tony held out another cup of water to him. "Sure you will, buddy. We'll work on them whenever you are out so you can, yeah? Maybe we can see if Bruce can share with you more so you can just use his knowledge of words."

"Puny Bruce _hate_ Hulk."

Clint patted Hulk's bare foot. "You scared him."

Hulk sighed. "Hulk scare Fast Red too."

Phil looked towards Natasha where she was most of the way across the room watching them all. "Fast Red is the Black Widow?"

Blinking, Hulk looked around and then pointed at Natasha. "Fast." Hulk touched his head. "Red." He looked towards Tony and then at Clint. "Is not right?"

Natasha came closer. "No, that's fine. I'll answer to that." She leaned against the back of the couch. "You don't want to smash me now?"

Hulk shrugged and took the cup from Tony. "Hulk only mad because Fast Red take Puny Bruce up too high and then boom."

Natasha's eyebrows rose. "You thought I'd caused the explosion?"

Hulk drank from his cup and put it down on the floor beside his knee. "Fast Red made Puny Bruce worry worry. Lie lots. Fast Red made pop-pop. Not right at Hulk's face, but too close." He rubbed his hands against one another. "Hulk no like pop-pop."

"Uh. When I shot the steam pipe." Natasha leaned over and snagged Clint's handgun from his thigh holster. "Hulk, this makes what you call pop-pop?"

Hulk bared his teeth and Clint pulled his weapon from Natasha's hand to put it back. "No like."

Clint put his hand on Hulk's toe. "That's alright. We aren't going to fire it."

Hulk huffed.

****

Tony pulled on Steve's arm and pulled him along to greet the plane as it landed with their dinner. "He hasn't ever had anyone give him a chance, you know?"

"Yes, I understand that, but Tony, he's nine feet tall and capable of crushing any of us."

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make him understand he's part of our team. Right? We can't just let him fight and nothing else, Steve. It seems...horrible."

Steve frowned and picked up the stack of pizza boxes Tony had passed by. "I...Yeah, when you put it like that. Hulk has been mostly hunted, right?"

"Yeah." Tony picked up the case of sides. "We've got pasta too." He stepped out of the plane and looked up at the sky. "You think Thor will be coming back?"

"Phil said Thor's dame...lady, I mean lady, is still on Earth so he'll be back."

Tony nodded. "Sure."

****

Hulk looked around at his team mostly sleeping. He carefully ran his fingertip over Agent's head where he was asleep between Shooty Cupid and Starman. Hulk looked to Tony-inside. "Bruce like Team?"

Tony-inside blinked. "Uhm. You know, I really haven't gotten him to talk about it, so I don't know. You want me to ask him?"

Hulk yawned. "Ple-ease. Hulk train tomorrow?"

"Yep. We're here all week."

With a nod, Hulk laid down on his side, facing Tony-inside. "Hulk sleep."

"Sure, buddy." Tony-inside came over and sat down next to Hulk. "I want you to know that I like you. As Hulk _and_ as Bruce."

Hulk carefully cupped Tony-inside with his hand. "Hulk can smell. Just like Puny Bruce." He closed his eyes and ignored Tony-inside's next question as he let himself fall away.

****

Bruce woke up on his side on something soft. _Carpet_ , said the back of his brain. Bruce pushed himself up and found Tony right beside him. "I..." He stopped as he had a flash of Hulk throwing Steve out over the ocean. "What the hell were you all doing with him?"

Tony grinned wide and leaned against Bruce. "Hulk was training." He patted Bruce's side. "You...uh, hungry?"

Bruce rubbed at his hair and looked around at the rest of the team laid out on a couch that wasn't placed like Bruce was used to seeing in Tony's rooms. "Sure. What happened to the couch?"

"We moved it when Hulk wouldn't come inside very far." Tony helped Bruce stand up. "There's a bunch of rooms, but no one wanted to leave him all by himself."

"Why?" Bruce followed Tony into a kitchen and stared at a huge set of utensils in the sink for a few moments before Tony shoved a cup of coffee at him. "What is that?"

"Hulk was figuring out eating." Tony sat down across from Bruce at the kitchen table. "Bruce, how much do you two really share? He has a whole separate vocabulary."

"I can't really tell you. I don't remember most of the time he is in control." Bruce sipped. "He ate?"

"Yeah." Tony yawned. "He and Cap practiced throwing Cap. We figured out that I can fly with Cap standing on one of my boots. Hulk also let Cap run up his back and leap off of him."

Bruce stared down at his coffee. "Really?" He blinked as a surface tablet in the tablet flared to life. The video moved a little in a way that told Bruce it was from Tony's armor. Hulk grinned at Steve and crouched down so Steve could run up his back. Bruce gasped as Hulk shoved on the bottom of Steve's feet to propel him further. "Shit."

"That took them a while to get timed right." Tony tapped on the screen and brought up another video. "Here's him letting Clint and Natasha take turns flipping off his shoulders."

Bruce rubbed his face as he watched Hulk look like he was worried as Natasha backflipped from a standing position on his shoulder to the sand below. Bruce sucked in a quick breathe as Hulk's hand came up, but he stopped mid-reach.

"Yeah. That's his reflexive need to catch her reaction. I had those too." Tony put a plate of pizza in front of him. "Here, pepperoni."

Bruce frowned and touched the crust of the pizza. "How did you know that's my favorite?"

Tony shrugged. "It was Hulk's favorite too."

Bruce nodded absently as on the screen Clint landed in a roll that had Hulk stepping forward looking for all the world like he was scared Clint had hurt himself.

****

Steve woke up when the light in the room started to brighten. He rubbed his eyes and looked around at his team ranged around the room. Tony and Bruce were at the end of the couch tangled together. Natasha was curled in a chair pulled up close. Phil and Clint were tucked on either side of Steve on their end of the couch.

Steve yawned and untangled himself from his guys. He padded into the kitchen and found the coffee machine making him a cup. "Thanks, JARVIS."

"You are most welcome, Captain."

Steve sat down at the kitchen table and tapped the edge of the touch surface. "Can you give me stats on yesterday's training and show me where we can improve?"

The screen switched on and showed him the trajectories of Hulk's throws overlaid on top of each other. Steve settled in to see where they could improve, content as he could be in this new, weird world he found himself in.

****


	15. Chapter 15

*****

Clint yawned as he stepped out of Tony's beach house. He took a sip of his coffee as he watched Steve try to convince Hulk that they weren't training today. Clint leaned on the railing beside Phil. "What is he doing?"

Phil shrugged one shoulder. "JARVIS suggested a bonding exercise to help Hulk feel more a part of the team."

"Steve looks like he's trying to explain a beach ball to him."

"Yep."

Clint frowned. "Hulk will just flatten the ball won't he...No, wait, let me guess, Tony made the ball."

Phil nodded towards Iron Man sitting on the big beach ball. "He says it'll bounce off anything Hulk hits it against. He built in an AI that knows what it is about to hit so Hulk can throw it as hard as he wants without killing what he's hitting."

"Awesome." Clint gulped down the rest of his coffee. "I'll wake up Nat."

****

Hulk mournfully poked at the ball with a finger. "Hulk break."

"You won't break it." Iron Man's false face moved to show Tony-inside. "It won't break. I designed it with you in mind, buddy."

Frowning, Hulk bounced the ball against the ground with the flat of his hand. "Hulk break everything."

"Not everything." Tony-inside looked to Starman. "You didn't break Steve yesterday. Or Clint. Or Natasha."

Hulk blinked and bounced the ball a little harder. "Could."

"Yeah, and I could explode, but you don't see me doing that, do you?"

Starman turned to stare at Tony-inside. "Explode?"

Iron Man's face snapped into place. "What, Steve, you didn't think about the fact that I've got a tiny arc reactor in my chest that shouldn't be possible to be as small as it is. Think it through. Yes, explode. Only, since I'm really smart and my math is perfect, it doesn't." Iron Man kicked the ball into Hulk's shins. "Throw it, buddy."

Hulk huffed and knocked it gently towards Spaceman.

****

Bruce came awake to the same ceiling as the day before. "Huh." He sat up and looked around at the team sleeping all over. "Okay, we are not all sleeping out here again." Bruce got up and poked Phil awake.

"What?"

"We should all find rooms."

Phil blinked and looked around. "Sounds good." He nudged Steve awake. "Help me with Clint."

Bruce watched them as Steve carried Clint and followed Phil from the room. Natasha's eyes opened before Bruce actually touched her shoulder.

"Hey." Bruce smiled down at her. "I thought you might like to go sleep in a bed."

Natasha blinked and looked down her body to Tony asleep on the couch by himself. "Yes." She looked up at him. "Don't try to touch my shoulder. Touch my foot next time."

Bruce nodded. "Sure. I'll keep that in mind."

Natasha yawned and stretched as she wondered out of the room. "Bruce, please get around to fucking Stark soon. The man is driving me nuts."

"Uh." Bruce stood there like a idiot until he heard a door click closed down the hall. He turned towards Tony. "Okay."

****

Steve smiled as Clint sleepily nuzzled at his neck. He eased Clint down to the bed and smiled at Phil. "We're becoming a better team."

Phil smiled. "We are, yes." He molded himself to Steve's side. "You look very nice when you are wet."

Steve grinned. "We could take a shower."

"We could."

Steve shook Clint gently. "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. Phil wants to ravish you in the shower."

Clint blinked awake and rubbed at one eye. "Ravish? Phil, what does ravish mean to him?"

Phil chuckled as he took off his loosened tie.

****

Steve hadn't been that sure about sex in his old time. It had always seemed...untoward somehow. At least the way Bucky had gone about it. In the future, where people in ads showed more skin than most of the pinups Steve had ever seen in anything his men had had, sex was more and less than untoward. It was a glorious mess that Steve was certain he was becoming addicted to.

Steve eased Phil against Clint more tightly and rubbed at Phil's hole. "I like this. Everything we do." He spread more of the scented lube Clint had found in the shower's wall compartment. There had been dick shaped... _toys_ in there. Steve had stared until Clint had whispered in Steve's ear that they could play with them.

Steve pressed lube into Phil and watched avidly as Clint pressed a slicked up toy to himself. Clint panted as he eased it in. He was kneeling in front of Phil, turned towards the wall so they could both see everything he was doing to himself.

Phil roamed a hand across Clint's shoulders as he shivered from Steve pressing in more lube. "You like fucking, darling?"

Steve grinned and kissed the side of Phil's neck as he lined himself up. "Yes. I love it." He thrust in and reveled in Phil arching and making a wonderful moaning sound.

Clint watched them over his shoulder as he pressed more of the dick-shaped toy into himself. Steve wrapped an arm around Phil and used his thigh muscles to bend them down towards Clint.

"Kneel up, Clint. Phil wants to reach your toy."

Clint groaned and knelt up on his knees. Phil cupped Clint's hanging sac as he used his other hand to twist the toy inside Clint.

Steve rocked his hips as Clint arched back towards them. Phil's breathing hitched and he turned his face towards Steve's neck.

"More."

Steve grinned and settled them down behind Clint. He reached in under Phil's hand to press at Clint's slick hole. "Clint."

Clint panted, one hand braced agains the shower wall. "Fuck me."

Phil pressed a button on the bottom of the toy and it buzzed. Steve's eyes widened as Clint writhed, his whole body jerking as the buzzing changed pitch. Phil tugged and stroked Clint's scrotum.

"Come on. You can give it up for me, can't you?"

Clint whined and his free hand came back to clutch at Steve's hip. "More."

Phil twisted the toy down into Clint. Steve pressed them closer, putting Phil's erection up against the end of Clint's toy.

Phil stiffened and jerked hard as his orgasm broke over him, splattering Clint's back. Steve thrust slowly so that Phil's milking him didn't bring him over. Clint whimpered under them as Phil flicked the toy off.

Steve carefully pulled out and he helped Phil set down, gasping, on the bench beside them. "Okay?"

Phil nodded and gave him a thumbs up before pointing at Clint, who was jacking himself harshly and on the verge of tears.

Steve nodded and fitted himself to Clint's back. "You're alright, love." He pulled the toy free and pressed his fingers into Clint. "Wide open, aren't you?"

Clint whimpered and turned his head to kiss up and down Steve's neck and part of his chest.

Steve explored Clint with his fingers as he slicked himself more. "With us, aren't you? Our...partner."

Clint's movements started to become more erratic and Steve added a fourth finger to his thrusts. He wrapped his other hand around Clint's chest to hold him in place. Steve's fingers found Clint's nipple, so Steve twisted it gently back and forth.

Clint's body clinched up, his hips jerking in little rhythmic movements as Clint spilled over his own hand. "Fuck."

Steve grinned and pulled his fingers free. "Don't mind if I do." He thrust in as hard as he dared. Clint cried out and kept making wonderful sounds as Steve pressed them up to the wall to help keep the power of his thrusts under control.

Phil's hand stroked down Steve's spine and it was suddenly much easier to focus and draw out Clint's pleasure.

Steve felt the trembling start that was a prelude to Clint's body giving up and Clint passing out. Steve pressed his hand to Clint's sternum and grinned at the feel of Clint's heartbeat. "Love...you."

Clint's eyes closed and he went limp. Steve whimpered and started to pull away until Phil's hand landed on his shoulder.

"Stay in him. He'll wake back up in a minute." Phil's nimble fingers stroked down the crack of Steve's ass. "Remember what I said his favorite fantasy was?"

Steve nodded shakily. "I...remember." He spread his knees wider and shivered a little as Phil worked a fingertip into him.

"Your eyes got so wide when you saw the toys."

Steve nodded, panting. He dropped his forehead to Clint's shoulder. "They...are something."

Phil's fingers stroked so slowly. "Did you see one you were curious about?"

Steve shivered harder as Clint started to rouse in his arms. "I...I've never seen anything shaped like the blue one."

Phil chuckled and his fingers twisted deeper into Steve with a deft move. "The one shaped like a tentacle."

"Is that what it is?" Steve moaned as Clint tightened his muscles around Steve's cock. "I mean..."

"You mean, what could a sex toy be doing shaped like a tentacle?"

Clint moaned and pressed back onto Steve. "Fuck, fuck. I..." He turned his head so he could see them both over his shoulder. "Please...please."

Steve circled his hips and a cool tip of something that wasn't Phil touched Steve. "Clint..."

Clint was frantic, trying to fuck himself on Steve's cock. Steve pressed them tight to the wall as Phil thrust into Steve in little slow movements. Steve panted into Clint's neck as Phil filled him up with a _toy_.

Steve panted, groaning as the toy's weird bumps and little molded sucker shapes made themselves known at the rim of Steve's anus. It was tantalizing in a way an actual cock normally wasn't. Steve leaned more on Clint as Phil thrust more of the toy in.

Clint's hand fluttered along Steve's hip and back to feel at Steve's hole. "Fuck. You've got it all, Steve."

Steve turned his head to catch Phil's eye. "More."

Phil smiled at him and pressed a button. Steve's world exploded and he fucked Clint fast, hard and shallow, at a punishing pace as the vibrations rode through Steve's insides. It was lovely and powerful and then Phil tipped the toy's point down into Steve's prostate. 

****

Clint reveled in being pinned in the corner as Steve tried to fill the empty hole left by the vibrations of the dildo Clint had fucked himself with. Steve's weight pressed him into the corner harder as Phil flicked on the vibrator of the tentacle shaped dildo he'd put into Steve. 

Clint threw his head back to touch Steve's shoulder as Steve started fucking in a rough way he normally never allowed himself. Clint whimpered and braced one hand in the corner to help him hold his chest out from the wall.

His other hand was busy pressing at Steve's hole as best he could as Phil made them both into mush. Clint shuddered as Steve's fucking triggered another, more intense, but slower orgasm.

Clint rested his forehead against the wall as suddenly there was water raining down on their backs. 

Phil's voice was rough as he leaned over Steve's shoulder. "You're being fucked by it, aren't you, Steve? Fucked raw and wide open."

Steve's mouth latched onto the back of Clint's neck. Clint shivered as Steve started sucking on his skin.

Phil pressed a kiss to Clint's shoulder. "You aren't done by far, are you?"

Steve's noises were muffled, but Clint could feel the thrusting speeding up.

Clint bowed his head just a little more. "Steve...do you want to be wider open?"

Steve's teeth dug into Clint's skin as he gave Clint several deep thrusts before going over the edge.

****

Phil eased Steve down onto his side and turned the water down to a fine mist. Clint was slumped into the corner, still panting. Phil grinned at Steve's semi-hard state, even now.

Clint blearily peered at him. "That was...awesome."

Phil smiled at him. "Yes."

Pushing himself off the wall, Clint flopped down mostly on Steve. "So, toys?"

"Toys." Phil smiled down on them.

****

Bruce laid Tony down on the widest bed he'd seen of Tony's yet. Bruce pulled back the covers and shifted Tony into the bed. He climbed in beside Tony and sighed as he settled in. He checked Tony's mostly healed burn and then curled around Tony to sleep.

****

Tony woke up too hot. He pushed the covers off with his feet and lay in the cool air, petting Bruce's hair where he lay wrapped around Tony. "Bruce."

"Yeah?"

"You want to make love?"

Bruce lifted his head and stared at Tony through narrowed eyes. "Did you hit your head?"

Tony grinned and wiggled out of his pants and underwear. "Nah. Not this week."

Bruce blinked and wrapped his hand gently around Tony's nearer arm. "Tony."

Tony pushed at Bruce's boxers. "I figured it out."

Bruce let Tony strip him. "Figured it out?"

"Yeah." Tony pushed Bruce over onto his back and crawled on top of him. "You want me. Not my money or the company. I want you. All of you, but not _for_ your rage. Sex would be an expression of that. Right?"

Bruce smiled and wrapped his arm around Tony's shirt clad back. "Yeah, you did figure it out."

Tony grinned wide. "So. Sex?"

Bruce chuckled. "Sex." He rolled them over. "Which do you like better, Tony, being penetrated or doing the penetrating?"

"I want..." Tony smirked. "Both."

"What?"

Tony wiggled out from under Bruce. "This is my island get away. I have the outrageous sex stuff here."

"Tony, I've seen the Tower's bedroom. You have outrageous sex stuff everywhere."

Tony grinned wide. "True." He touched a button and a panel popped open on the wall. Tony reached in and withdrew a curved dildo. "I say I fuck you and you fuck me with this. It'll do until I can get a scan of your erection for a production run."

"Production..." Bruce shook his head. "Wow. Okay." He took the dildo from Tony and leaned in close. "You have any shaped like you?"

Tony smirked. "Of course, I do."

Bruce nodded and went over to the panel. "Which one is it?"

Tony frowned as he stepped up close. "Why? I want to fuck you myself."

Bruce put back the dildo Tony had chosen and pulled out the one Tony was pointing at. "You will. I'm going to fuck you with this." Bruce waggled the dildo at him.

Tony's eyes went wide. "Oh!" He pushed on Bruce's side. "Hurry up."

Bruce tripped Tony over into the bed. "Slow down. We'll get there."

Tony's hand roamed over Bruce's ass and thighs as he looked in the bedside table for lube. "I've been waiting _forever_ , Bruce."

Bruce turned and pushed him down, bottle of lube in his free hand. "Tony, I promise we will fuck every night for the next month if you will settle down for two minutes."

Tony wiggled onto the bed and spread his legs. "Every night. Sometimes twice?"

"At least once I'll see how many times I can make you come and you can see if you can give me a repeat of the dry orgasm I once had."

Tony grinned. "Awesome. Hurry up."

"Slow down." Bruce was careful, gentle with his fingers as he opened Tony. "We're going to do this again and again, Tony. Open you up like this." 

Tony reached above his head to grip at the edge of the mattress as Bruce pressed into him with three fingers. "Fuck me. Sweetheart...please."

Bruce kissed Tony's temple and swept the fingertips of his free hand up Tony's erection. "Breathe, Tony."

Tony gulped in air as Bruce pulled his fingers free. Tony reached for Bruce as he lubed up the dildo.

"Shaped like you. Sized to you as well, isn't it?"

Tony whimpered and pulled his scrotum up out of the way. "Please. Please, sweetheart."

Bruce kissed Tony's collarbone and rammed in the dildo to the hilt. Tony arched up hard and dropped back down, moaning.

"Like it, don't you?"

Tony's hips gave little jerky movements as Bruce wiggled the dildo in place. "Oh, oh."

Bruce gave Tony's cock one firm stroke before wrapping a cock ring around him. Tony whimpered, lifting his head to look down his body before dropping his head back to the bed with a thud.

"Want to be wrapped up, Tony?"

Tony shivered and shook his head. "Bare. Messy...but good."

Bruce kissed him long and softly, gentling Tony whenever he started to try to make the kiss into a power struggle. Bruce lubed up Tony's cock. "I have this trick I can do. Want to see it?"

Tony whimpered as Bruce straddled him, facing Tony's feet. "Y-yes. Fuck..."

"Yep." Bruce held himself still and then with Tony's help to hold Tony's erection at the proper angle, Bruce sank down slowly. "Fu...Learned...this during...a class." Bruce grinned at Tony over his shoulder as he stopped with Tony buried in him. "Biofeedback is useful for more than experiments."

"Bruce." Tony's voice was breathy and shaking.

Bruce ran his hand over Tony's knee and braced himself with one hand on the bed as he used the other to move the dildo in Tony in time with his own movements up and down Tony's dick.

Tony panted and lifted himself up to grab at Bruce's shoulders. "Ah...Sweetheart..."

Bruce settled into his rhythm and lifted his bracing hand to jack himself. "Come on...Fuck me, love."

Tony's noises grew and quickened. He planted one foot against the bed and matched Bruce's pace. "Ooooh."

Bruce slammed down harder. "That's it." He twisted the dildo in Tony. "Shaped just like you. You're fucking yourself, aren't you?"

Tony's hands slipped down to Bruce's sides. "Yesss...More, more."

"More?" Bruce quit stroking himself and used that hand to knead Tony's balls gently. "Aching yet? Is the need...consuming you?"

Tony writhed as Bruce kept it up. "Plea...se. Bruce..."

"There...you are." Bruce popped open the cockring and pressed the dildo in as far as he could get it. 

Tony shouted and arched up against Bruce's back. Bruce panted as Tony's cock twitched inside him. Then as Tony flopped back down, Bruce moved the dildo.

Tony jerked and whimpered. His hand snaked around Bruce's hip to grope clumsily at Bruce's cock.

Bruce took Tony's hand and wrapped him around himself. "So good, love." He jacked himself off as Tony's dick softened inside him.

****

Tony put the dildo into the toy cleaner and came back out to find Bruce snoring into his pillow. "Awesome." Tony smiled gently down at Bruce as he climbed in beside him. "J, did he get near the red zone?"

"Borderline while orgasming."

Tony nodded. "He has it under control."

"Perhaps he is feeling more settled given that the Hulk now knows that he is part of a team, sir."

Tony cocked his head. "Yeah, that probably helped too." He settled next to Bruce and yawned. "He didn't stress about the endearment?"

"No, sir."

"Good." Tony rubbed at his reactor through his shirt. He'd need to check the discharge in the morning and see if it was more than usual. He'd think about taking off his shirt for the next time they made love. "Check all the usual, J."

"Everyone is in good health. Collective stress levels are lower this week than at anytime since the formation of the Avengers. The healing of Agent..."

Bruce rosed up. "What?"

Tony soothed his hand across Bruce's chest. "Nothing important."

"Oh." Bruce looped his arm around Tony's shoulders. "Sleep?"

"I'm manic after sex. I'll sleep after while."

"Hmm. 'Kay." Bruce's arm went slack.

Tony blinked down at him. "He didn't yell."

"Indeed not. Perhaps, Doctor Banner is the individual you appear to have been looking for all these years?"

Tony grinned and laid down with a tablet to work near Bruce until Tony felt he could go to sleep. "Yeah, I think so, J."

****

Steve grinned up at the ceiling. He'd mention better soundproofing to Bruce in the morning. They were faint, but Steve's ears were much better than he'd ever allowed anyone to know about.

"I trust there will not be a problem, Captain?"

Steve jumped and blinked up at the ceiling. "No, JARVIS, no problem. I'm happy for them. You might show us to room at opposite ends of the house tomorrow, though, alright?"

"The rooms are soundproofed."

"Not well enough for my heightened senses, JARVIS."

"Very well. I will rearrange accommodations. Would you like the preferred toys moved as well?"

Steve could feel the blush creeping up his neck. He pulled Clint and Phil in just a little. "Yes, please."

"The room at the west end of the house will be ready tomorrow, Captain."

"Thanks, JARVIS." Steve turned his head to touch his nose to Clint's hair. "Sometimes the future scares me."

Clint patted sleepily at Steve's chest. "I'll find you another textbook."

Steve grinned and huffed out a quiet chuckle. He drifted off to sleep, relaxed and happy.

****


End file.
